Systems and methods for identifying and storing a portion of a media asset

ABSTRACT

Systems and methods are described herein for a media guidance application that can cause a specific portion of a media asset to be stored based on a user command. For example, if the user requests the closing scene from a given movie, the media guidance application may detect the command, determine that it comprises an instruction to store a portion of a media asset, identify a source of the portion of the media asset, and cause the portion of the media asset to be stored. The media guidance application may also cause the entirety of the media asset to be stored and initiate playback at the start of the requested portion. This may allow users to store and watch portions of particular interest without requiring that the users seek through the entire media asset on their own.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.15/195,530, filed Jun. 28, 2016 (pending), which is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 14/673,493, filed Mar. 30, 2015 (nowU.S. Pat. No. 9,392,324), the contents of which are hereby incorporatedby reference herein in their entireties.

BACKGROUND

In recent years, the number of ways in which users have been able toaccess, interact with, and record a plethora of media assets hasexpanded rapidly. Typically, the entirety of a show, movie, or othermedia asset is recorded at once. However, it is often the case that auser is only interested in a specific portion of a given media asset.

SUMMARY

Accordingly, methods and systems are disclosed herein for a mediaguidance application that identifies and stores portions of media assetsbased on user commands. In particular, the media guidance applicationmay receive a command, such as a voice command, from a user and then acton the command. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the voice command includes an instruction to store aportion of a media asset (e.g., a scene). The media guidance applicationmay then find a source (e.g., a video-on-demand provider) for theportion of the media asset and cause the portion of the media asset tobe stored. By doing so, the media guidance application may facilitatethe storage of the requested portion of the media asset withoutconsuming unnecessary bandwidth or storage space. The media guidanceapplication may also facilitate the later viewing of the portion of themedia asset without requiring the user to search within the entirety ofthe media asset for the originally requested portion.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive a command froma user (e.g., a voice command). For example, the media guidanceapplication may be implemented on a user device comprising a microphonethrough which a voice command may be received. The media guidanceapplication may then determine (e.g., via control circuitry) that thecommand comprises an instruction to store a portion of a media asset,wherein the portion is less than the entire media asset. For example,the command may comprise an instruction to store at least one of aspecific scene, clip, chapter, interview, trailer, advertisement, andouttake from or related to the media asset.

The media guidance application may then identify (e.g., via controlcircuitry) a source of the portion of the media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may search schedule data (e.g., located atstorage circuitry) for an upcoming broadcast of the media asset. Thesource may be any suitable provider of which the media guidanceapplication is aware. For example, the media guidance application mayaccess (e.g., via a communications network) a database of known mediaasset sources.

The media guidance application may then cause the portion of the mediaasset to be stored (e.g., at storage circuitry). For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve (e.g., via a communications network)the portion of the media asset from a remote database and then store theportion of the media asset at a user equipment of a user (e.g., tostorage circuitry). In another example, the media guidance applicationmay record (e.g., to storage circuitry) the portion of the media assetfrom a broadcast of the media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe command comprises an indication of a duration of the portion of themedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the command includes an instruction to store the first five minutesof a media asset. The media guidance application may then determine(e.g., via control circuitry) a starting position and an ending positionof the portion of the media asset based on the indication. For example,the media guidance application may determine that “the first fiveminutes” corresponds to a starting position of zero minutes (i.e., thebeginning of the media asset) and an ending position of five minutes.The media guidance application may then cause the portion of the mediaasset that elapses between the starting position and the ending positionto be stored. For example, in this case, only the first five minutes ofthe media asset would be stored.

In another example, the media guidance application may identify theportion of the media asset that the user is currently watching and, inthe absence of an explicit duration indication, cause that portion to bestored. The media guidance application may identify the portion of themedia asset in part, by determining the identity of the media assetbased on the location of the user, the time of the request, and thechannel, provider, or other source the user was viewing at the time thecommand was issued. This process is discussed in greater detail below.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect a signalassociated with the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect an audio signal containing audio from the mediaasset (e.g., via the same microphone used to receive a voice command).The media guidance application may then determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry) a fingerprint associated with the media asset based on thesignal. For example, the media guidance application may determine anacoustic fingerprint for the detected audio signal. The media guidanceapplication may then access a database comprising a plurality of knownfingerprints. For example, the database (e.g., located at a remoteserver and accessed via a communications network) may comprise a list ofpreviously determined fingerprints for a plurality of media assets. Themedia guidance application may then cross-reference the fingerprint withthe plurality of known fingerprints and determine the identity of thesource of the portion of the media asset based on the cross-referencing.For example, the media guidance application may compare the fingerprintto the list of previously determined fingerprints to find a match.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect a deviceidentifier in the instruction. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect a user instruction to store the portion of themedia asset by detecting the user's statement of the phrase “my tablet.”The media guidance application may then determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry) which device the identifier corresponds to based on a userprofile. For example, the media guidance application may recognize thatthe term “my tablet” refers to a specific device associated with theuser based on a user profile (e.g., located at storage circuitry). Themedia guidance application may then cause the portion of the media assetto be stored at the device. For example, the media guidance applicationmay cause the portion of the media asset to be stored on the user'stablet based on this operation, as opposed to another device associatedwith the user.

The media guidance application may also, once the source of the portionof the media asset has been identified and the device has beendetermined, generate for display (e.g., via control circuitry) a storageconfirmation message. For example, the media guidance application maygenerate for display, on the user device at which the command wasreceived, a message confirming that the portion of the media asset hasbeen found and a recording will soon be on the identified device. Themedia guidance application may, in the message, identify the mediaasset, user, identified device, or any other relevant storage-relatedinformation or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe portion of the media asset has been partially played at an initialsource corresponding to the instruction. For example, if the mediaguidance application determines that the user has requested that a scenefrom a broadcast currently in progress be stored, the media guidanceapplication may determine (e.g., via control circuitry) that the scenehas already been partially played (i.e., that only a fragment of theportion of the media asset could be stored from the initial source). Inresponse to this determination, the media guidance application may thenidentify a secondary source for the portion of the media asset. Forexample, the media guidance application may search schedule data (e.g.,located at storage circuitry) and identify a future broadcast of themedia asset as the secondary source for the portion of the media assetsuch that the whole of the requested portion may be stored.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe command comprises a received media asset identifier. For example,the media guidance application may detect that the user, in his or hercommand, requested a media asset by name. The media guidance applicationmay then access (e.g., via control circuitry) a database comprising aplurality of known media asset identifiers. For example, the mediaguidance application may access a database stored on a remote servercontaining a list of known media asset identifiers (for example, namesof available media assets).

After accessing the database, the media guidance application maycross-reference the received media asset identifier against theplurality of known media asset identifiers. Based on thiscross-referencing, the media guidance application may then determinethat the received media asset identifier does not match any known mediaasset identifier of the plurality or known media asset identifiers. Forexample, if the media guidance application determines that the user hasrequested a media asset using an erroneous or shortened version of itsproper name, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., usingcontrol circuitry), that the name the user specified does not match anyknown name in the database.

The media guidance application may then calculate a set of similaritymetrics for the plurality of known media asset identifiers. A similaritymetric, as computed by the media guidance application, may be numericaland correspond to a degree of similarity between the received mediaasset identifier and the known media asset identifier. For example, themedia guidance application may compute the similarity metric such thatit corresponds to how close the name received from the user is to agiven media asset named in the database. The media guidance applicationmay determine this closeness using a character-wise comparison,word-by-word comparison, categorical comparison (i.e., determining ifthe received media asset identifier and the known media asset identifierbelong to the same category, such as a genre), or any other appropriatemethod of comparison. The process of calculating a similarity metric isdiscussed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 12.

The media guidance application may then determine (e.g., using controlcircuitry) that a similarity metric of the set of similarity metricsexceeds a threshold similarity metric. For example, if the mediaguidance application determines that a similarity metric exceeds thethreshold, this may signal to the media guidance application that atleast one of the known media asset identifiers is a potential match.Based on this determination, the media guidance application may thenselect a suggested media asset identifier and provide to the user anoption to confirm that that suggested media asset identifier correspondsto the received media asset identifier. For example, if the mediaguidance application determines that the user requested “Star Wars 1,”the media guidance application may suggest “Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace” as a potential match.

It should be noted that the systems and/or methods described above maybe applied to, or used in accordance with, other systems, methods,and/or apparatuses.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The above and other objects and advantages of the disclosure will beapparent upon consideration of the following detailed description, takenin conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like referencecharacters refer to like parts throughout, and in which:

FIG. 1 snows an illustrative example of a display screen generated by amedia guidance application in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 2 snows another illustrative example of a display screen generatedby a media guidance application in accordance with some embodiments ofthe disclosure;

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an illustrative user equipment device inaccordance with some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a block diagram of an illustrative media system in accordancewith some embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 5 shows an illustrative embodiment of a user device on which themedia guidance application has been implemented in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 6 shows an illustrative embodiment of a system that may process andact upon a user command to cause a portion of a media asset to be storedon a user device at which the command was received in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 7 shows an illustrative embodiment of a system that may process andact upon a user command to cause a portion of a media asset to be storedon a second user device in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset based on a command received from a user in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset when multiple sources are identified in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset when a starting position and an ending position of theportion have been indicated by the user in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset at an identified device in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for selecting a suggestedmedia asset identifier in response to the user providing a media assetidentifier that does not match any media asset identifier known to adatabase in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure; and

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for combining sections of aportion of a media asset from multiple sources when a user requests thestorage of a portion of a media asset that has already been partiallyplayed in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Methods and systems are disclosed herein for a media guidanceapplication that identifies and stores portions of media assets based onuser commands. In particular, the media guidance application may receivea command from a user and then act on the command. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the command includes aninstruction to store a portion of a media asset (e.g., a clip). Themedia guidance application may then find a source (e.g., a futurebroadcast) for the portion of the media asset and cause the portion ofthe media asset to be stored. By doing so, the media guidanceapplication may facilitate the later viewing of the portion of the mediaasset without requiring the user to search within the entirety of themedia asset for the originally requested portion. For example, the mediaguidance application may cause only the portion of the media asset to bestored, allowing the user to access it at a later time. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may store the entire mediaasset, and may associate a pointer with the portion of the media asset,such that when the user accesses the stored media asset, the mediaguidance application causes playback to begin at the start of therequested portion by relying on the pointer as an indicator of the startof the requested portion.

In some aspects, a media guidance application may receive a command froma user (e.g., a voice command). For example, the media guidanceapplication may be implemented on a user device comprising a microphonethrough which a voice command may be received. The media guidanceapplication may then determine (e.g., via control circuitry) that thecommand comprises an instruction to store a portion of a media asset,wherein the portion is less than the entire media asset. For example,the command may comprise an instruction to store at least one of aspecific scene, clip, chapter, interview, trailer, advertisement, andouttake from or related to the media asset. The command may alsocomprise an instruction to store a plurality of portions of the mediaasset that are related to one another. For example, the portions maycontain a certain actor or character, be associated with a thresholdnumber of mentions or interactions on social media, contain a certaintype of music, be associated with a certain mood, be scheduled forrecording by friends of the user, or any other appropriate criteria orany combination thereof.

The media guidance application may then identify (e.g., via controlcircuitry) a source of the portion of the media asset. For example, themedia guidance application may search schedule data (e.g., located atstorage circuitry) for an upcoming broadcast of the media asset. Thesource may be any suitable provider of which the media guidanceapplication is aware. For example, the media guidance application mayaccess (e.g., via a communications network) a database of known mediaasset sources.

The media guidance application may then cause the portion of the mediaasset to be stored (e.g., at storage circuitry). For example, the mediaguidance application may retrieve (e.g., via a communications network)the portion of the media asset from a remote database and then store theportion of the media asset at a user equipment of a user (e.g., tostorage circuitry). In another example, the media guidance applicationmay record (e.g., to storage circuitry) the portion of the media assetfrom a broadcast of the media asset.

The amount of content available to users in any given content deliverysystem can be substantial. Consequently, many users desire a form ofmedia guidance through an interface that allows users to efficientlynavigate content selections and easily identify content that they maydesire. An application that provides such guidance is referred to hereinas an interactive media guidance application or, sometimes, a mediaguidance application or a guidance application.

Interactive media guidance applications may take various forms dependingon the content for which they provide guidance. One typical type ofmedia guidance application is an interactive television program guide.Interactive television program guides (sometimes referred to aselectronic program guides) are well-known guidance applications that,among other things, allow users to navigate among and locate many typesof content or media assets. Interactive media guidance applications maygenerate graphical user interface screens that enable a user to navigateamong, locate and select content. As referred to herein, the terms“media asset” and “content” should be understood to mean anelectronically consumable user asset, such as television programming, aswell as pay-per-view programs, on-demand programs (as in video-on-demand(VOD) systems), Internet content (e.g., streaming content, downloadablecontent, Webcasts, etc.), video clips, audio, content information,pictures, rotating images, documents, playlists, websites, articles,books, electronic books, blogs, advertisements, chat sessions, socialmedia, applications, games, and/or any other media or multimedia and/orcombination of the same. Guidance applications also allow users tonavigate among and locate content. As referred to herein, the term“multimedia” should be understood to mean content that utilizes at leasttwo different content forms described above, for example, text, audio,images, video, or interactivity content forms. Content may be recorded,played, displayed or accessed by user equipment devices, but can also bepart of a live performance.

The media guidance application and/or any instructions for performingany of the embodiments discussed herein may be encoded on computerreadable media. Computer readable media includes any media capable ofstoring data. The computer readable media may be transitory, including,but not limited to, propagating electrical or electromagnetic signals,or may be non-transitory including, but not limited to, volatile andnon-volatile computer memory or storage devices such as a hard disk,floppy disk, USB drive, DVD, CD, media cards, register memory, processorcaches, Random Access Memory (“RAM”), etc.

With the advent of the Internet, mobile computing, and high-speedwireless networks, users are accessing media on user equipment deviceson which they traditionally did not. As referred to herein, the phrase“user equipment device,” “user equipment,” “user device,” “electronicdevice,” “electronic equipment,” “media equipment device,” or “mediadevice” should be understood to mean any device for accessing thecontent described above, such as a television, a Smart TV, a set-topbox, an integrated receiver decoder (IRD) for handling satellitetelevision, a digital storage device, a digital media receiver (DMR), adigital media adapter (DMA), a streaming media device, a DVD player, aDVD recorder, a connected DVD, a local media server, a BLU-RAY player, aBLU-RAY recorder, a personal computer (PC), a laptop computer, a tabletcomputer, a WebTV box, a personal computer television (PC/TV), a PCmedia server, a PC media center, a hand-held computer, a stationarytelephone, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a mobile telephone, aportable video player, a portable music player, a portable gamingmachine, a smart phone, or any other television equipment, computingequipment, or wireless device, and/or combination of the same. In someembodiments, the user equipment device may have a front facing screenand a rear facing screen, multiple front screens, or multiple angledscreens. In some embodiments, the user equipment device may have a frontfacing camera and/or a rear facing camera. On these user equipmentdevices, users may be able to navigate among and locate the same contentavailable through a television. Consequently, media guidance may beavailable on these devices, as well. The guidance provided may be forcontent available only through a television, for content available onlythrough one or more of other types of user equipment devices, or forcontent available both through a television and one or more of the othertypes of user equipment devices. The media guidance applications may beprovided as on-line applications (i.e., provided on a web-site), or asstand-alone applications or clients on user equipment devices. Variousdevices and platforms that may implement media guidance applications aredescribed in more detail below.

One of the functions of the media guidance application is to providemedia guidance data to users. As referred to herein, the phrase “mediaguidance data” or “guidance data” should be understood to mean any datarelated to content or data used in operating the guidance application.For example, the guidance data may include program information, guidanceapplication settings, user preferences, user profile information, medialistings, media-related information (e.g., broadcast times, broadcastchannels, titles, descriptions, ratings information (e.g., parentalcontrol ratings, critic's ratings, etc.), genre or category information,actor information, logo data for broadcasters' or providers' logos,etc.), media format (e.g., standard definition, high definition, 3D,etc.), advertisement information (e.g., text, images, media clips,etc.), on-demand information, blogs, websites, and any other type ofguidance data that is helpful for a user to navigate among and locatedesired content selections.

FIGS. 1-2 show illustrative display screens that may be used to providemedia guidance data. The display screens shown in FIGS. 1-2 may beimplemented on any suitable user equipment device or platform. While thedisplays of FIGS. 1-2 are illustrated as full screen displays, they mayalso be fully or partially overlaid over content being displayed. A usermay indicate a desire to access content information by selecting aselectable option provided in a display screen (e.g., a menu option, alistings option, an icon, a hyperlink, etc.) or pressing a dedicatedbutton (e.g., a GUIDE button) on a remote control or other user inputinterface or device. In response to the user's indication, the mediaguidance application may provide a display screen with media guidancedata organized in one of several ways, such as by time and channel in agrid, by time, by channel, by source, by content type, by category(e.g., movies, sports, news, children, or other categories ofprogramming), or other predefined, user-defined, or other organizationcriteria.

FIG. 1 shows illustrative grid of a program listings display 100arranged by time and channel that also enables access to different typesof content in a single display. Display 100 may include grid 102 with:(1) a column of channel/content type identifiers 104, where eachchannel/content type identifier (which is a cell in the column)identifies a different channel or content type available; and (2) a rowof time identifiers 106, where each time identifier (which is a cell inthe row) identifies a time block of programming. Grid 102 also includescells of program listings, such as program listing 108, where eachlisting provides the title of the program provided on the listing'sassociated channel and time. With a user input device, a user can selectprogram listings by moving highlight region 110. Information relating tothe program listing selected by highlight region 110 may be provided inprogram information region 112. Region 112 may include, for example, theprogram title, the program description, the time the program is provided(if applicable), the channel the program is on (if applicable), theprogram's rating, and other desired information.

In addition to providing access to linear programming (e.g., contentthat is scheduled to be transmitted to a plurality of user equipmentdevices at a predetermined time and is provided according to aschedule), the media guidance application also provides access tonon-linear programming (e.g., content accessible to a user equipmentdevice at any time and is not provided according to a schedule).Non-linear programming may include content from different contentsources including on-demand content (e.g., VOD), Internet content (e.g.,streaming media, downloadable media, etc.), locally stored content(e.g., content stored on any user equipment device described above orother storage device), or other time-independent content. On-demandcontent may include movies or any other content provided by a particularcontent provider (e.g., HBO On Demand providing “The Sopranos” and “CurbYour Enthusiasm”). HBO ON DEMAND is a service mark owned by Time WarnerCompany L.P. et al. and THE SOPRANOS and CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASM aretrademarks owned by the Home Box Office, Inc. Internet content mayinclude web events, such as a chat session or Webcast, or contentavailable on-demand as streaming content or downloadable content throughan Internet web site or other Internet access (e.g. FTP).

Grid 102 may provide media guidance data for non-linear programmingincluding on-demand listing 114, recorded content listing 116, andInternet content listing 118. A display combining media guidance datafor content from different types of content sources is sometimesreferred to as a “mixed-media” display. Various permutations of thetypes of media guidance data that may be displayed that are differentthan display 100 may be based on user selection or guidance applicationdefinition (e.g., a display of only recorded and broadcast listings,only on-demand and broadcast listings, etc.). As illustrated, listings114, 116, and 118 are shown as spanning the entire time block displayedin grid 102 to indicate that selection of these listings may provideaccess to a display dedicated to on-demand listings, recorded listings,or Internet listings, respectively. In some embodiments, listings forthese content types may be included directly in grid 102. Additionalmedia guidance data may be displayed in response to the user selectingone of the navigational icons 120. (Pressing an arrow key on a userinput device may affect the display in a similar manner as selectingnavigational icons 120.)

Display 100 may also include video region 122, advertisement 124, andoptions region 126. Video region 122 may allow the user to view and/orpreview programs that are currently available, will be available, orwere available to the user. The content of video region 122 maycorrespond to, or be independent from, one of the listings displayed ingrid 102. Grid displays including a video region are sometimes referredto as picture-in-guide (PIG) displays. PIG displays and theirfunctionalities are described in greater detail in Satterfield et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,378, issued May 13, 2003 and Yuen et al. U.S. Pat.No. 6,239,794, issued May 29, 2001, which are hereby incorporated byreference herein in their entireties. PIG displays may be included inother media guidance application display screens of the embodimentsdescribed herein.

Advertisement 124 may provide an advertisement for content that,depending on a viewer's access rights (e.g., for subscriptionprogramming), is currently available for viewing, will be available forviewing in the future, or may never become available for viewing, andmay correspond to or be unrelated to one or more of the content listingsin grid 102. Advertisement 124 may also be for products or servicesrelated or unrelated to the content displayed in grid 102. Advertisement124 may be selectable and provide further information about content,provide information about a product or a service, enable purchasing ofcontent, a product, or a service, provide content relating to theadvertisement, etc. Advertisement 124 may be targeted based on a user'sprofile/preferences, monitored user activity, the type of displayprovided, or on other suitable targeted advertisement, bases.

While advertisement 124 is shown as rectangular or banner shaped,advertisements may be provided in any suitable size, shape, and locationin a guidance application display. For example, advertisement 124 may beprovided as a rectangular shape that is horizontally adjacent to grid102. This is sometimes referred to as a panel advertisement. Inaddition, advertisements may be overlaid over content or a guidanceapplication display or embedded within a display. Advertisements mayalso include text, images, rotating images, video clips, or other typesof content described above. Advertisements may be stored in a userequipment device having a guidance application, in a database connectedto the user equipment, in a remote location (including streaming mediaservers), or on other storage means, or a combination of theselocations. Providing advertisements in a media guidance application isdiscussed in greater detail in, for example, Knudson et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2003/0110499, filed Jan. 17, 2003; Ward, IIIet al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,997, issued Jun. 29, 2004; and Schein et al.U.S. Pat. No. 6,388,714, issued May 14, 2002, which are herebyincorporated by reference herein in their entireties. It will beappreciated that advertisements may be included in other media guidanceapplication display screens of the embodiments described herein.

Options region 126 may allow the user to access different types ofcontent, media guidance application displays, and/or media guidanceapplication features. Options region 126 may be part of display 100 (andother display screens described herein), or may be invoked by a user byselecting an on-screen option or pressing a dedicated or assignablebutton on a user input device. The selectable options within optionsregion 126 may concern features related to program listings in grid 102or may include options available from a main menu display. Featuresrelated to program listings may include searching for other air times orways of receiving a program, recording a program, enabling seriesrecording of a program, setting program and/or channel as a favorite,purchasing a program, or other features. Options available from a mainmenu display may include search options, VOD options, parental controloptions, Internet options, cloud-based options, device synchronizationoptions, second screen device options, options to access various typesof media guidance data displays, options to subscribe to a premiumservice, options to edit a user's profile, options to access a browseoverlay, or other options.

The media guidance application may be personalized based on a user'spreferences. A personalized media guidance application allows a user tocustomize displays and features to create a personalized “experience”with the media guidance application. This personalized experience may becreated by allowing a user to input these customizations and/or by themedia guidance application monitoring user activity to determine varioususer preferences. Users may access their personalized guidanceapplication by logging in or otherwise identifying themselves to theguidance application. Customization of the media guidance applicationmay be made in accordance with a user profile. The customizations mayinclude varying presentation schemes (e.g., color scheme of displays,font size of text, etc.), aspects of content listings displayed (e.g.,only HDTV or only 3D programming, user-specified broadcast channelsbased on favorite channel selections, re-ordering the display ofchannels, recommended content, etc.), desired recording features (e.g.,recording or series recordings for particular users, recording quality,etc.), parental control settings, customized presentation of Internetcontent (e.g., presentation of social media content, e-mail,electronically delivered articles, etc.) and other desiredcustomizations.

The media guidance application may allow a user to provide user profileinformation or may automatically compile user profile information. Themedia guidance application may, for example, monitor the content theuser accesses and/or other interactions the user may have with theguidance application. Additionally, the media guidance application mayobtain all or part of other user profiles that are related to aparticular user (e.g., from other web sites on the Internet the useraccesses, such as www.allrovi.com, from other media guidanceapplications the user accesses, from other interactive applications theuser accesses, from another user equipment device of the user, etc.),and/or obtain information about the user from other sources that themedia guidance application may access. As a result, a user can beprovided with a unified guidance application experience across theuser's different user equipment devices. This type of user experience isdescribed in greater detail below in connection with FIG. 4. Additionalpersonalized media guidance application features are described ingreater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. Patent Application Publication No.2005/0251827, filed Jul. 11, 2005, Boyer et al., U.S. Pat. No.7,165,098, issued Jan. 16, 2007, and Ellis et al., U.S. PatentApplication Publication No. 2002/0174430, filed Feb. 21, 2002, which arehereby incorporated by reference herein in their entireties.

Another display arrangement for providing media guidance is shown inFIG. 2. Video mosaic display 200 includes selectable options 202 forcontent information organized based on content type, genre, and/or otherorganization criteria. In display 200, television listings option 204 isselected, thus providing listings 206, 208, 210, and 212 as broadcastprogram listings. In display 200 the listings may provide graphicalimages including cover art, still images from the content, video clippreviews, live video from the content, or other types of content thatindicate to a user the content being described by the media guidancedata in the listing. Each of the graphical listings may also beaccompanied by text to provide further information about the contentassociated with the listing. For example, listing 208 may include morethan one portion, including media portion 214 and text portion 216.Media portion 214 and/or text portion 216 may be selectable to viewcontent in full-screen or to view information related to the contentdisplayed m media portion 214 (e.g., to view listings for the channelthat the video is displayed on).

The listings in display 200 are of different sizes (i.e., listing 206 islarger than listings 208, 210, and 212), but if desired, all thelistings may be the same size. Listings may be of different sizes orgraphically accentuated to indicate degrees of interest to the user orto emphasize certain content, as desired by the content provider orbased on user preferences. Various systems and methods for graphicallyaccentuating content listings are discussed in, for example, Yates, U.S.Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0153885, filed Dec. 29, 2005,which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Users may access content and the media guidance application (and itsdisplay screens described above and below) from one or more of theiruser equipment devices. FIG. 3 shows a generalized embodiment ofillustrative user equipment device 300. More specific implementations ofuser equipment devices are discussed below in connection with FIG. 4.User equipment device 300 may receive content and data via input/output(hereinafter “I/O”) path 302. I/O path 302 may provide content (e.g.,broadcast programming, on-demand programming, Internet content, contentavailable over a local area network (LAN) or wide area network (WAN),and/or other content) and data to control circuitry 304, which includesprocessing circuitry 306 and storage 308. Control circuitry 304 may beused to send and receive commands, requests, and other suitable datausing I/O path 302. I/O path 302 may connect control circuitry 304 (andspecifically processing circuitry 306) to one or more communicationspaths (described below). I/O functions may be provided by one or more ofthese communications paths, but are shown as a single path in FIG. 3 toavoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Control circuitry 304 may be based on any suitable processing circuitrysuch as processing circuitry 306. As referred to herein, processingcircuitry should be understood to mean circuitry based on one or moremicroprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors,programmable logic devices, field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs),application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs), etc., and may includea multi-core processor (e.g., dual-core, quad-core, hexa-core, or anysuitable number of cores) or supercomputer. In some embodiments,processing circuitry may be distributed across multiple separateprocessors or processing units, for example, multiple of the same typeof processing units (e.g., two Intel Core i7 processors) or multipledifferent processors (e.g., an Intel Core i5 processor and an Intel Corei7 processor). In some embodiments, control circuitry 304 executesinstructions for a media guidance application stored in memory (i.e.,storage 308). Specifically, control circuitry 304 may be instructed bythe media guidance application to perform the functions discussed aboveand below. For example, the media guidance application may provideinstructions to control circuitry 304 to generate the media guidancedisplays. In some implementations, any action performed by controlcircuitry 304 may be based on instructions received from the mediaguidance application.

In client-server based embodiments, control circuitry 304 may includecommunications circuitry suitable for communicating with a guidanceapplication server or other networks or servers. The instructions forcarrying out the above mentioned functionality may be stored on theguidance application server. Communications circuitry may include acable modem, an integrated services digital network (ISDN) modem, adigital subscriber line (DSL) modem, a telephone modem, Ethernet card,or a wireless modern for communications with other equipment, or anyother suitable communications circuitry. Such communications may involvethe Internet or any other suitable communications networks or paths(which is described in more detail in connection with FIG. 4). Inaddition, communications circuitry may include circuitry that enablespeer-to-peer communication of user equipment devices, or communicationof user equipment devices in locations remote from each other (describedin more detail below).

Memory may be an electronic storage device provided as storage 308 thatis part of control circuitry 304. As referred to herein, the phrase“electronic storage device” or “storage device” should be understood tomean any device for storing electronic data, computer software, orfirmware, such as random-access memory, read-only memory, hard drives,optical drives, digital video disc (DVD) recorders, compact disc (CD)recorders, BLU-RAY disc (BD) recorders, BLU-RAY 3D disc recorders,digital video recorders (DVR, sometimes called a personal videorecorder, or PVR), solid state devices, quantum storage devices, gamingconsoles, gaming media, or any other suitable fixed or removable storagedevices, and/or any combination of the same. Storage 308 may be used tostore various types of content described herein as well as mediaguidance data described above. Nonvolatile memory may also be used(e.g., to launch a boot-up routine and other instructions). Cloud-basedstorage, described in relation to FIG. 4, may be used to supplementstorage 308 or instead of storage 308.

Control circuitry 304 may include video generating circuitry and tuningcircuitry, such as one or more analog tuners, one or more MPEG-2decoders or other digital decoding circuitry, high-definition tuners, orany other suitable tuning or video circuits or combinations of suchcircuits. Encoding circuitry (e.g., for converting over-the-air, analog,or digital signals to MPEG signals for storage) may also be provided.Control circuitry 304 may also include scaler circuitry for upconvertingand downconverting content into the preferred output format of the userequipment 300. Circuitry 304 may also include digital-to-analogconverter circuitry and analog-to-digital converter circuitry forconverting between digital and analog signals. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may be used by the user equipment device to receive and todisplay, to play, or to record content. The tuning and encodingcircuitry may also be used to receive guidance data. The circuitrydescribed herein, including for example, the tuning, video generating,encoding, decoding, encrypting, decrypting, scaler, and analog/digitalcircuitry, may be implemented using software running on one or moregeneral purpose or specialized processors. Multiple tuners may beprovided to handle simultaneous tuning functions (e.g., watch and recordfunctions, picture-in-picture (PIP) functions, multiple-tuner recording,etc.). If storage 308 is provided as a separate device from userequipment 300, the tuning and encoding circuitry (including multipletuners) may be associated with storage 308.

A user may send instructions to control circuitry 304 using user inputinterface 310. User input interface 310 may be any suitable userinterface, such as a remote control, mouse, trackball, keypad, keyboard,touch screen, touchpad, stylus input, joystick, voice recognitioninterface, or other user input interfaces. Display 312 may be providedas a stand-alone device or integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300. For example, display 312 may be a touchscreen ortouch-sensitive display. In such circumstances, user input interface 312may be integrated with or combined with display 312. Display 312 may beone or more of a monitor, a television, a liquid crystal display (LCD)for a mobile device, amorphous silicon display, low temperature polysilicon display, electronic ink display, electrophoretic display, activematrix display, electro-wetting display, electrofluidic display, cathoderay tube display, light-emitting diode display, electroluminescentdisplay, plasma display panel, high-performance addressing display,thin-film, transistor display, organic light-emitting diode display,surface-conduction electron-emitter display (SED), laser television,carbon nanotubes, quantum dot display, interferometric modulatordisplay, or any other suitable equipment for displaying visual images.In some embodiments, display 312 may be HDTV-capable. In someembodiments, display 312 may be a 3D display, and the interactive mediaguidance application and any suitable content may be displayed in 3D. Avideo card or graphics card may generate the output to the display 312.The video card may offer various functions such as accelerated renderingof 3D scenes and 2D graphics, MPEG-2/MPEG-4 decoding, TV output, or theability to connect multiple monitors. The video card may be anyprocessing circuitry described above in relation to control circuitry304. The video card may be integrated with the control circuitry 304.Speakers 314 may be provided as integrated with other elements of userequipment device 300 or may be stand-alone units. The audio component ofvideos and other content displayed on display 312 may be played throughspeakers 314. In some embodiments, the audio may be distributed to areceiver (not shown), which processes and outputs the audio via speakers314.

The guidance application may be implemented using any suitablearchitecture. For example, it may be a stand-alone applicationwholly-implemented on user equipment device 300. In such an approach,instructions of the application are stored locally (e.g., in storage308), and data for use by the application is downloaded on a periodicbasis (e.g., from an out-of-band feed, from an Internet resource, orusing another suitable approach). Control circuitry 304 may retrieveinstructions of the application from storage 308 and process theinstructions to generate any of the displays discussed herein. Based onthe processed instructions, control circuitry 304 may determine whataction to perform when input is received from input interface 310. Forexample, movement of a cursor on a display up/down may be indicated bythe processed instructions when input interface 310 indicates that anup/down button was selected.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is a client-serverbased application. Data for use by a thick or thin client implemented onuser equipment device 300 is retrieved on-demand by issuing requests toa server remote to the user equipment device 300. In one example of aclient-server based guidance application, control circuitry 304 runs aweb browser that interprets web pages provided by a remote server. Forexample, the remote server may store the instructions for theapplication in a storage device. The remote server may process thestored instructions using circuitry (e.g., control circuitry 304) andgenerate the displays discussed above and below. The client device mayreceive the displays generated by the remote server and may display thecontent of the displays locally on equipment device 300. This way, theprocessing of the instructions is performed remotely by the server whilethe resulting displays are provided locally on equipment device 300.Equipment device 300 may receive inputs from the user via inputinterface 310 and transmit those inputs to the remote server forprocessing and generating the corresponding displays. For example,equipment device 300 may transmit a communication to the remote serverindicating that an up/down button was selected via input interface 310.The remote server may process instructions in accordance with that inputand generate a display of the application corresponding to the input(e.g., a display that moves a cursor up/down). The generated display isthen transmitted to equipment device 300 for presentation to the user.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application is downloaded andinterpreted or otherwise run by an interpreter or virtual machine (runby control circuitry 304). In some embodiments, the guidance applicationmay be encoded in the ETV Binary Interchange Format (EBIF), received bycontrol circuitry 304 as part of a suitable feed, and interpreted by auser agent running on control circuitry 304. For example, the guidanceapplication may be an EBIF application. In some embodiments, theguidance application may be defined by a series of JAVA-based files thatare received and run by a local virtual machine or other suitablemiddleware executed by control circuitry 304. In some of suchembodiments (e.g., those employing MPEG-2 or other digital mediaencoding schemes), the guidance application may be, for example, encodedand transmitted in an MPEG-2 object carousel with the MPEG audio andvideo packets of a program.

User equipment device 300 of FIG. 3 can be implemented in system 400 ofFIG. 4 as user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404,wireless user communications device 406, or any other type of userequipment suitable for accessing content, such as a non-portable gamingmachine. For simplicity, these devices may be referred to hereincollectively as user equipment or user equipment devices, and may besubstantially similar to user equipment devices described above. Userequipment devices, on which a media guidance application may beimplemented, may function as a standalone device or may be part of anetwork of devices. Various network configurations of devices may beimplemented and are discussed in more detail below.

A user equipment device utilizing at least some of the system featuresdescribed above in connection with FIG. 3 may not be classified solelyas user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, or awireless user communications device 406. For example, user televisionequipment 402 may, like some user computer equipment 404, beInternet-enabled allowing for access to Internet content, while usercomputer equipment 404 may, like some television equipment 402, includea tuner allowing for access to television programming. The mediaguidance application may have the same layout on various different typesof user equipment or may be tailored to the display capabilities of theuser equipment. For example, on user computer equipment 404, theguidance application may be provided as a web site accessed by a webbrowser. In another example, the guidance application may be scaled downfor wireless user communications devices 406.

In system 400, there is typically more than one of each type of userequipment device but only one of each is shown in FIG. 4 to avoidovercomplicating the drawing. In addition, each user may utilize morethan one type of user equipment device and also more than one of eachtype of user equipment device.

In some embodiments, a user equipment device (e.g., user televisionequipment 402, user computer equipment 404, wireless user communicationsdevice 406) may be referred to as a “second screen device.” For example,a second screen device may supplement content presented on a first userequipment device. The content presented on the second screen device maybe any suitable content that supplements the content presented on thefirst device. In some embodiments, the second screen device provides aninterface for adjusting settings and display preferences of the firstdevice. In some embodiments, the second screen device is configured forinteracting with other second screen devices or for interacting with asocial network. The second screen device can be located in the same roomas the first device, a different room from the first device but in thesame house or building, or in a different building from the firstdevice.

The user may also set various settings to maintain consistent mediaguidance application settings across in-home devices and remote devices.Settings include those described herein, as well as channel and programfavorites, programming preferences that the guidance applicationutilizes to make programming recommendations, display preferences, andother desirable guidance settings. For example, if a user sets a channelas a favorite on, for example, the web site www.allrovi.com on theirpersonal computer at their office, the same channel would appear as afavorite on the user's in-home devices (e.g., user television equipmentand user computer equipment) as well as the user's mobile devices, ifdesired. Therefore, changes made on one user equipment device can changethe guidance experience on another user equipment device, regardless ofwhether they are the same or a different type of user equipment device.In addition, the changes made may be based on settings input by a user,as well as user activity monitored by the guidance application.

The user equipment devices may be coupled to communications network 414.Namely, user television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, andwireless user communications device 406 are coupled to communicationsnetwork 414 via communications paths 408, 410, and 412, respectively.Communications network 414 may be one or more networks including theInternet, a mobile phone network, mobile voice or data network (e.g., a4G or LTE network), cable network, public switched telephone network, orother types of communications network or combinations of communicationsnetworks. Paths 408, 410, and 412 may separately or together include oneor more communications paths, such as, a satellite path, a fiber-opticpath, a cable path, a path that supports Internet communications (e.g.,IPTV), free-space connections (e.g., for broadcast or other wirelesssignals), or any other suitable wired or wireless communications path orcombination of such paths. Path 412 is drawn with dotted lines toindicate that in the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 4 it is awireless path and paths 408 and 410 are drawn as solid lines to indicatethey are wired paths (although these paths may be wireless paths, ifdesired). Communications with the user equipment devices may be providedby one or more of these communications paths, but are shown as a singlepath in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing.

Although communications paths are not drawn between user equipmentdevices, these devices may communicate directly with each other viacommunication paths, such as those described above in connection withpaths 408, 410, and 412, as well as other short-range point-to-pointcommunication paths, such as USB cables, IEEE 1394 cables, wirelesspaths (e.g., Bluetooth, infrared, IEEE 802-11x, etc.), or othershort-range communication via wired or wireless paths. BLUETOOTH is acertification mark owned by Bluetooth SIG, INC. The user equipmentdevices may also communicate with each other directly through anindirect path via communications network 414.

System 400 includes content source 416 and media guidance data source418 coupled to communications network 414 via communication paths 420and 422, respectively. Paths 420 and 422 may include any of thecommunication paths described above in connection with paths 408, 410,and 412. Communications with the content source 416 and media guidancedata source 418 may be exchanged over one or more communications paths,but are shown as a single path in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating thedrawing. In addition, there may be more than one of each of contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418, but only one of each isshown in FIG. 4 to avoid overcomplicating the drawing. (The differenttypes of each of these sources are discussed below.) If desired, contentsource 416 and media guidance data source 418 may be integrated as onesource device. Although communications between sources 416 and 418 withuser equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 are shown as throughcommunications network 414, in some embodiments, sources 416 and 418 maycommunicate directly with user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 viacommunication paths (not shown) such as those described above inconnection with paths 408, 410, and 412.

Content source 416 may include one or more types of content distributionequipment including a television distribution facility, cable systemheadend, satellite distribution facility, programming sources (e.g.,television broadcasters, such as NBC, ABC, HBO, etc.), intermediatedistribution facilities and/or servers, Internet providers, on-demandmedia servers, and other content providers. NBC is a trademark owned bythe National Broadcasting Company, Inc., ABC is a trademark owned by theAmerican Broadcasting Company, Inc., and HBO is a trademark owned by theHome Box Office, Inc. Content source 416 may be the originator ofcontent (e.g., a television broadcaster, a Webcast provider, etc.) ormay not be the originator of content (e.g., an on-demand contentprovider, an Internet provider of content of broadcast programs fordownloading, etc.). Content source 416 may include cable sources,satellite providers, on-demand providers, Internet providers,over-the-top content providers, or other providers of content. Contentsource 416 may also include a remote media server used to storedifferent types of content (including video content selected by a user),in a location remote from any of the user equipment devices. Systems andmethods for remote storage of content, and providing remotely storedcontent to user equipment are discussed in greater detail in connectionwith Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 7,761,392, issued Jul. 20, 2010, whichis hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.

Media guidance data source 418 may provide media guidance data, such asthe media guidance data described above. Media guidance data may beprovided to the user equipment devices using any suitable approach. Insome embodiments, the guidance application may be a stand-aloneinteractive television program guide that receives program guide datavia a data feed (e.g., a continuous feed or trickle feed). Programschedule data and other guidance data may be provided to the userequipment on a television channel sideband, using an in-band digitalsignal, using an out-of-band digital signal, or by any other suitabledata transmission technique. Program schedule data and other mediaguidance data may be provided to user equipment on multiple analog ordigital television channels.

In some embodiments, guidance data from media guidance data source 418may be provided to users' equipment using a client-server approach. Forexample, a user equipment device may pull media guidance data from aserver, or a server may push media guidance data to a user equipmentdevice. In some embodiments, a guidance application client residing onthe user's equipment may initiate sessions with source 418 to obtainguidance data when needed, e.g., when the guidance data is out of dateor when the user equipment device receives a request from the user toreceive data. Media guidance may be provided to the user equipment withany suitable frequency (e.g., continuously, daily, a user-specifiedperiod of time, a system-specified period of time, in response to arequest from user equipment, etc.). Media guidance data source 418 mayprovide user equipment devices 402, 404, and 406 the media guidanceapplication itself or software updates for the media guidanceapplication.

In some embodiments, the media guidance data may include viewer data.For example, the viewer data may include current and/or historical useractivity information (e.g., what content the user typically watches,what times of day the user watches content, whether the user interactswith a social network, at what times the user interacts with a socialnetwork to post information, what types of content the user typicallywatches (e.g., pay TV or free TV), mood, brain activity information,etc.). The media guidance data may also include subscription data. Forexample, the subscription data may identify to which sources or servicesa given user subscribes and/or to which sources or services the givenuser has previously subscribed but later terminated access (e.g.,whether the user subscribes to premium channels, whether the user hasadded a premium level of services, whether the user has increasedInternet speed). In some embodiments, the viewer data and/or thesubscription data may identify patterns of a given user for a period ofmore than one year. The media guidance data may include a model (e.g., asurvivor model) used for generating a score that indicates a likelihooda given user will terminate access to a service/source. For example, themedia guidance application may process the viewer data with thesubscription data using the model to generate a value or score thatindicates a likelihood of whether the given user will terminate accessto a particular service or source. In particular, a higher score mayindicate a higher level of confidence that the user will terminateaccess to a particular service or source. Based on the score, the mediaguidance application may generate promotions and advertisements thatentice the user to keep the particular service or source indicated bythe score as one to which the user will likely terminate access.

Media guidance applications may be, for example, stand-aloneapplications implemented on user equipment devices. For example, themedia guidance application may be implemented as software or a set ofexecutable instructions which may be stored in storage 308, and executedby control circuitry 304 of a user equipment device 300. In someembodiments, media guidance applications may be client-serverapplications where only a client application resides on the userequipment device, and server application resides on a remote server. Forexample, media guidance applications may be implemented partially as aclient application on control circuitry 304 of user equipment device 300and partially on a remote server as a server application (e.g., mediaguidance data source 418) running on control circuitry of the remoteserver. When executed by control circuitry of the remote server (such asmedia guidance data source 418), the media guidance application mayinstruct the control circuitry to generate the guidance applicationdisplays and transmit the generated displays to the user equipmentdevices. The server application may instruct the control circuitry ofthe media guidance data source 418 to transmit data for storage on theuser equipment. The client application may instruct control circuitry ofthe receiving user equipment to generate the guidance applicationdisplays.

Content and/or media guidance data delivered to user equipment devices402, 404, and 406 may be over-the-top (OTT) content. OTT contentdelivery allows Internet-enabled user devices, including any userequipment device described above, to receive content that is transferredover the Internet, including any content described above, in addition tocontent received over cable or satellite connections. OTT content isdelivered via an Internet connection provided by an Internet serviceprovider (ISP), but a third party distributes the content. The ISP maynot be responsible for the viewing abilities, copyrights, orredistribution of the content, and may only transfer IP packets providedby the OTT content provider. Examples of OTT content providers includeYOUTUBE, NETFLIX, and HULU, which provide audio and video via IPpackets. Youtube is a trademark owned by Google Inc., Netflix is atrademark owned by Netflix Inc., and Hulu is a trademark owned by Hulu,LLC. OTT content providers may additionally or alternatively providemedia guidance data described above. In addition to content and/or mediaguidance data, providers of OTT content can distribute media guidanceapplications (e.g., web-based applications or cloud-based applications),or the content can be displayed by media guidance applications stored onthe user equipment device.

Media guidance system 400 is intended to illustrate a number ofapproaches, or network configurations, by which user equipment devicesand sources of content and guidance data may communicate with each otherfor the purpose of accessing content and providing media guidance. Theembodiments described herein may be applied in any one or a subset ofthese approaches, or in a system employing other approaches fordelivering content and providing media guidance. The following fourapproaches provide specific illustrations of the generalized example ofFIG. 4.

In one approach, user equipment devices may communicate with each otherwithin a home network. User equipment devices can communicate with eachother directly via short-range point-to-point communication schemesdescribed above, via indirect paths through a hub or other similardevice provided on a home network, or via communications network 414.Each of the multiple individuals in a single home may operate differentuser equipment devices on the home network. As a result, it may bedesirable for various media guidance information or settings to becommunicated between the different user equipment devices. For example,it may be desirable for users to maintain consistent media guidanceapplication settings on different user equipment devices within a homenetwork, as described in greater detail in Ellis et al., U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 11/179,410, filed Jul. 11, 2005. Different types ofuser equipment devices in a home network may also communicate with eachother to transmit content. For example, a user may transmit content fromuser computer equipment to a portable video player or portable musicplayer.

In a second approach, users may have multiple types of user equipment bywhich they access content and obtain media guidance. For example, someusers may have home networks that are accessed by in-home and mobiledevices. Users may control in-home devices via a media guidanceapplication implemented on a remote device. For example, users mayaccess an online media guidance application on a website via a personalcomputer at their office, or a mobile device such as a PDA orweb-enabled mobile telephone. The user may set various settings (e.g.,recordings, reminders, or other settings) on the online guidanceapplication to control the user's in-home equipment. The online guidemay control the user's equipment directly, or by communicating with amedia guidance application on the user's in-home equipment. Varioussystems and methods for user equipment devices communicating, where theuser equipment devices are in locations remote from each other, isdiscussed in, for example, Ellis et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,046,801, issuedOct. 25, 2011, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in itsentirety.

In a third approach, users of user equipment devices inside and outsidea home can use their media guidance application to communicate directlywith content source 416 to access content. Specifically, within a home,users of user television equipment 402 and user computer equipment 404may access the media guidance application to navigate among and locatedesirable content. Users may also access the media guidance applicationoutside of the home using wireless user communications devices 406 tonavigate among and locate desirable content.

In a fourth approach, user equipment devices may operate in a cloudcomputing environment to access cloud services. In a cloud computingenvironment, various types of computing services for content sharing,storage or distribution (e.g., video sharing sites or social networkingsites) are provided by a collection of network-accessible computing andstorage resources, referred to as “the cloud.” For example, the cloudcan include a collection of server computing devices, which may belocated centrally or at distributed locations, that provide cloud-basedservices to various types of users and devices connected via a networksuch as the Internet via communications network 414. These cloudresources may include one or more content sources 416 and one or moremedia guidance data sources 418. In addition or in the alternative, theremote computing sites may include other user equipment devices, such asuser television equipment 402, user computer equipment 404, and wirelessuser communications device 406. For example, the other user equipmentdevices may provide access to a stored copy of a video or a streamedvideo. In such embodiments, user equipment devices may operate in apeer-to-peer manner without communicating with a central server.

The cloud provides access to services, such as content storage, contentsharing, or social networking services, among other examples, as well asaccess to any content described above, for user equipment devices.Services can be provided in the cloud through cloud computing serviceproviders, or through other providers of online services. For example,the cloud-based services can include a content storage service, acontent sharing site, a social networking site, or other services viawhich user-sourced content is distributed for viewing by others onconnected devices. These cloud-based services may allow a user equipmentdevice to store content to the cloud and to receive content from thecloud rather than storing content locally and accessing locally-storedcontent.

A user may use various content capture devices, such as camcorders,digital cameras with video mode, audio recorders, mobile phones, andhandheld computing devices, to record content. The user can uploadcontent to a content storage service on the cloud either directly, forexample, from user computer equipment 404 or wireless usercommunications device 406 having content capture feature. Alternatively,the user can first transfer the content to a user equipment device, suchas user computer equipment 404. The user equipment device storing thecontent uploads the content to the cloud using a data transmissionservice on communications network 414. In some embodiments, the userequipment device itself is a cloud resource, and other user equipmentdevices can access the content directly from the user equipment deviceon which the user stored the content.

Cloud resources may be accessed by a user equipment device using, forexample, a web browser, a media guidance application, a desktopapplication, a mobile application, and/or any combination of accessapplications of the same. The user equipment device may be a cloudclient that relies on cloud computing for application delivery, or theuser equipment device may have some functionality without access tocloud resources. For example, some applications running on the userequipment device may be cloud applications, i.e., applications deliveredas a service over the Internet, while other applications may be storedand run on the user equipment device. In some embodiments, a user devicemay receive content from multiple cloud resources simultaneously. Forexample, a user device can stream audio from one cloud resource whiledownloading content from a second cloud resource. Or a user device candownload content from multiple cloud resources for more efficientdownloading. In some embodiments, user equipment devices can use cloudresources for processing operations such as the processing operationsperformed by processing circuitry described in relation to FIG. 3.

As referred to herein, a “command” is defined to be any input directedfrom a user to the media guidance application on which the mediaguidance application is meant to act. For example, the command maycomprise an instruction for the media guidance application to searchfor, store, or play back a given media asset. A command may be relativeto a piece of content (e.g., “Find the next broadcast of this show.”) orabsolute (e.g., “Go to channel 2.”). Commands may also be implied. Forexample, if the media guidance application detects that the user said “Ilove this show,” it may schedule a recording of the next broadcast ofthe program. The media guidance application may interpret these impliedcommands based on context, user command history, similar commands fromother users, and/or user preferences.

As referred to herein, a “portion of a media asset” is data from orrelated to the media asset that is itself less than the entire mediaasset. For example, the opening scene from a media asset is a portion ofthat media asset. In another example, a trailer related to the mediaasset is also a portion of the media asset.

As referred to herein, an “indication of a duration” is a user inputthat specifies, either explicitly or implicitly, the boundaries of theportion of the media asset. As with a command, the indication may berelative (e.g., “the next five minutes” or “this scene”) or absolute(e.g., “from the 30-minute mark to the 45-minute mark”).

As referred to herein, a “starting position” and an “ending position”are the start and end points of a portion of a media asset within theentirety of the media asset, respectively. For example, as shownpreviously, the starting position and ending position may be timemarkers (e.g., zero minutes and five minutes into the media asset). Thestarting position and ending position may also be scene transitions,commercial breaks, or any other suitable points of demarcation or anycombination thereof.

As referred to herein, a “device identifier” is any identifier that maybe relied upon to identify a specific device. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect that the user has instructed the mediaguidance application to store the portion of the media asset on “myphone,” which may enable the media guidance application to identify aparticular phone that belongs to the user for the purposes of performingthe storage operation. A device identifier may also refer to a device byits product name or a custom name set by the user. A device identifiermay also refer to devices belonging to other users of which the mediaguidance application is aware (e.g., “my sister's tablet”).

As referred to herein, a “confirmation message” is an indication fromthe media guidance application to the user that the command receivedfrom the user has been processed and acted upon. The confirmationmessage may be visual, auditory, tactile (e.g., a vibration), any othersuitable method of communication, or any combination thereof.

As referred to herein, a “media asset identifier” is any term or phrasethat can be used to identify a media asset. The media asset identifiermay be a title, nickname, abbreviation, or description of a media asset,any other suitably distinct term, or any combination thereof.

In some embodiments, a media guidance application may receive a commandfrom a user (e.g., via control circuitry 304) and determine that itcomprises an instruction to store a portion (e.g., the first fiveminutes) of the media asset the user is currently viewing. The mediaguidance application may then identify (e.g., via control circuitry 304)a source of the first five minutes of the media asset and cause thatportion of the media asset to be stored (e.g., on the user's tablet).Thus, the media guidance application (via control circuitry 304) enablesa user to record a portion of a media asset without manually configuringthe recording parameters or having to record the entirety of the mediaasset and extract the desired portion.

FIG. 5 snows an illustrative embodiment of a user device on which themedia guidance application has been implemented in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. The user device is user equipment device500, which may be any of user equipment devices 402, 404, or 406.

FIG. 5 snows user equipment device 500 receiving, via microphone 502,command 504. User equipment device 500 may be any user equipment, suchas user equipment device 402, 404, or 406. Microphone 502 can be anyuser input interface 310, and is presented in FIG. 5 as a microphone forillustrative purposes. The media guidance application may receivecommand 504 via user input interface 310 using audio recognition, videorecognition (e.g., for a gestural command), touch recognition (e.g., forinput on a touchscreen), text, or any other suitable means ofcommunication. Command 504 may be received by microphone 502 eitherlocally (as received through an auditory sensor such as a microphone, asdepicted in in FIG. 5). For example, the media guidance application,implemented on user equipment device 500, may detect that command 504,received with microphone 502, comprises an instruction to store aportion of “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.” Alternatively,command 504 may be received by the media guidance application viacontrol circuitry 304 of user equipment 500 from a remote source (e.g.,from user equipment device 404 by way of communications network 414).

The media guidance application may generate for display, on display 312of user equipment device 500, an illustrative display including optionalstorage confirmation message 506 and optional media asset identifierconfirmation message 508. Optional storage confirmation message 506 andoptional media asset identifier confirmation message 508 are depicted asvisual in FIG. 5, but the media guidance application may alternativelyor additionally present audio confirmation (e.g., by way of speakers314) or tactile confirmation (e.g., a series of vibrations generatedusing a vibration motor implemented in user equipment device 500).

The media guidance application may present optional storage confirmationmessage 506 to the user in response to the media guidance applicationcausing the portion of the media asset to be stored. For example, if themedia guidance application identifies a free video-on-demand service asa source of the requested portion of “Star Wars Episode 1: The PhantomMenace” and causes the portion to be stored, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display, on display 312, optional storageconfirmation message 506 with the phrase “The requested portion has beensaved” (not shown). The media guidance application may also presentoptional storage confirmation message 506 to the user if a futurerecording has been scheduled. For example, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display, on display 312, optional storageconfirmation message 506 with the phrase, “Found it!” (as shown in FIG.5). The media guidance application may also present optional storageconfirmation message 506 to the user in order to confirm that the userwould like to use the identified source. For example, if the mediaguidance application can only find the portion of the media asset at asource that requires a purchase payment in order to access the mediaasset, the media guidance application may generate for display, ondisplay 312, optional storage confirmation message 506 showing “Foundit! Would you like to buy ‘Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace’ for$5.99?” (not shown).

The media guidance application may also include in optional storageconfirmation message 506, when user equipment device 500 has a displayscreen, a video clip of a preview of the portion of the media asset thathas been stored. The media guidance application may also provide, usingoptional storage confirmation message 506, an option for the user toview the portion of the media asset.

The media guidance application may present optional media assetidentifier confirmation message 508 to the user in response to the mediaguidance application finding a media asset identifier that is close to,but does not necessarily match, the media asset identifier contained incommand 504. For example, if the media guidance application determinesthat command 504 includes the media asset identifier “Star Wars 1,” themedia guidance application may generate for display, on display 312,optional media asset identifier confirmation message 508 with thephrase, “‘Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace’—is this what youmean?” (as shown in FIG. 5).

The media guidance application may determine that a media assetidentifier is close to but does not match the media asset identifiercontained in command 504 in a variety of ways as described below. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,using control circuitry 304) that the command comprises a received mediaasset identifier (i.e., a media asset identifier that is received fromthe user). For example, the media guidance application may detect thatthe user has, in command 504, requested a media asset using a briefdescription. The media guidance application may then access (e.g., viacontrol circuitry 304) a database (e.g., located at server 608 orstorage circuitry 308) comprising a plurality of known media assetidentifiers. For example, the media guidance application may access alocally stored list of descriptions or summaries of available mediaassets. After accessing the database, the media guidance application maycross-reference (e.g., using control circuitry 304) the received mediaasset identifier against the plurality of known media asset identifiers.Based on this cross-referencing, the media guidance application may thendetermine that the received media asset identifier does not match anyknown media asset identifier of the plurality of known media assetidentifiers. For example, if the media guidance application determinesthat the user has requested a media asset using a brief description, themedia guidance application may determine (e.g., using control circuitry304) that the description the user specified does not match any of thedescriptions in the database (i.e., that each term, word, or characterin the received media asset identifier is not the same as those of anymedia asset identifier known to the database).

The media guidance application may then calculate (e.g., using controlcircuitry 304) a set of similarity metrics for the plurality of knownmedia asset identifiers. A similarity metric may correspond to a degreeof similarity between the received media asset identifier and the knownmedia asset identifier. For example, the media guidance application maycompute the similarity metric such that it corresponds to how close thedescription received from the user is to a given media asset descriptionin the database. The media guidance application may calculate this basedon a number of identical or synonymous words used, a probability thatthe description supplied by the user corresponds to the same category orgenre as a given media asset, or any other suitable method orcombination thereof. The process of calculating a similarity metric isdiscussed in greater detail below in FIG. 12.

The media guidance application may then determine (e.g., using controlcircuitry 304) that a similarity metric of the set of similarity metricsexceeds a threshold similarity metric. For example, if the mediaguidance application determines that a similarity metric exceeds thethreshold, this may signal to the media guidance application that atleast one of the known media asset identifiers is a potential match.Based on this determination, the media guidance application may thenselect a suggested media asset identifier. The media guidanceapplication may also provide to the user an option to confirm that thatsuggested media asset identifier corresponds to the received media assetidentifier (e.g., optional media asset identifier confirmation message508). For example, if the media guidance application determines that theuser has requested “The show with the irritable doctor,” the mediaguidance application may suggest “House” (a television show whosetitular character is both a doctor and irritable) as a potential match.In this case, the media guidance application may detect that the commandreferences (i) a primary character (ii) who is a doctor and (iii) whosemain trait is irritability. The media guidance application may thencross-reference this information against relevant fields in the databaseof known media asset identifiers.

The media guidance application may also present optional media assetidentifier confirmation message 508 to the user in response to the mediaguidance application being unable to find any suitable media assetidentifier based on command 504. For example, in that case, the mediaguidance application may, using optional media asset identifierconfirmation message 508, prompt the user to input another media assetidentifier.

The media guidance application may also prompt the user to confirm,using optional media asset identifier confirmation message 508, that thecommand referenced a particular media asset or portion of the mediaasset. In doing this, the media guidance application may include inoptional media asset identifier confirmation message 508 a preview ofthe media asset or portion of the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the command comprises aninstruction to store the opening scene from “Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace.” The media guidance application may generate fordisplay, on display 312, optional media asset identifier confirmationmessage 508 with the phrase “Did you mean this scene?” with a shortpreview of the opening scene of the movie.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304) receives a command from a user. In FIG. 5, command 504 isreceived, as an illustrative example, via microphone 502. Command 504may be any input that user input interface 310 is able to understand(e.g., tactile input or gestural input). The media guidance applicationmay receive command 504 via control circuitry 304 by monitoring theenvironment for any known user interaction (such as by listening for oneof a set of recognized keywords) or by accepting a command afterreceiving a user indication that a command is to follow (e.g., the userdepresses a button and the media guidance application prompts the userfor a command). For example, in FIG. 5, the media guidance applicationhas received command 504, which comprises an instruction to store aportion of “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine (e.g.,via control circuitry 304) that the command comprises an instruction tostore a portion of a media asset, wherein the portion is less than theentire media asset. For example, the media guidance application may,using control circuitry 304, determine that command 504 (received viamicrophone 502) comprises an instruction to store a scene from “StarWars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.”

The media guidance application may then identify (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304) a source of the portion of the media asset. For example,the media guidance application may search a list of Internet-basedcontent providers (e.g., via communications network 414) for anavailable version of the portion of the media asset. The source (such asmedia content source 416) may be any suitable provider of which themedia guidance application is aware. For example, the media guidanceapplication may store (e.g., at storage circuitry 308) a list of mediaasset sources preferred by the user.

The media guidance application may identify the source (e.g., mediacontent source 416) according to rules. The media guidance applicationmay set these rules by default, according to user preferences or inputs(e.g., stored at storage circuitry 308), or based on data received froma profiling database (e.g., media guidance data source 418). Forexample, the media guidance application may only identify a futurebroadcast of the media asset as a source if the broadcast occurs withina certain period of time. In this case, the media guidance applicationmay set a rule governing the maximum time until the next broadcast. Ifthe media guidance application finds no such future broadcast, it maythen search for on-demand or Internet-based content sources. In doingso, the media guidance application may apply a rule governing thepreferred order in which sources are searched or used.

Similarly, the media guidance application may evaluate theappropriateness of a paid content source as a source for the portion ofthe media asset according to rules. For example, if the media guidanceapplication determines that the price of the media asset from the paidsource is below a certain threshold (e.g., a maximum price point set bydefault or by user preferences), the media guidance application mayautomatically purchase the media asset. If the media guidanceapplication determines that the price is above the threshold, the mediaguidance application may prompt the user to authorize the purchase ifthere are no free sources available. In another example, the mediaguidance application may determine that a low-quality version of theportion of the media asset is available from a free source and ahigh-quality version is available from a paid source. The media guidanceapplication may automatically select the paid source, the free source,or prompt the user to select a source based on the difference inquality, price of the paid source, purchase history of the user, or anyother appropriate criteria or any combination thereof. As before, theserules may be set by the user or by default.

In some cases, the media guidance application may detect that theversions of the media asset provided by each potential source may differfrom one another. For example, the media guidance application mayreceive a user request, for a portion of “Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace” based on a theatrical release version the user iscurrently viewing. The media guidance application may take this intoaccount and preferentially search for other unaltered versions of themovie. If the media guidance application determines that the versionavailable from the identified source (e.g., media content source 416)does differ from the version the user is viewing, the media guidanceapplication may detect these differences and modify the commandaccordingly. For example, the version of “Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace” from the source the media guidance applicationidentifies may have advertisements inserted into it, altering the playtime and thus the starting and ending positions of the requested portionof the media asset. The media guidance application may detect theadvertisements (e.g., via metadata transmitted with the media asset orby analyzing the media asset to find the transitions between the movieand the advertisements) and alter the starting position and endingposition of the requested portion as necessary to account for the timeadded by the advertisements.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, using controlcircuitry 304, determine that command 504 comprises a request for aspecific version of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect certain key words associated with differentversions of media assets, including but not limited to “TV version,”“original version,” “unedited version,” and “director's cut.” The mediaguidance application may then, following the process described above foridentifying a source (e.g., media content source 416), identify a sourceof the specified version of the media asset. If no source can be foundfor the specified version of the media asset, the media guidanceapplication may notify the user via optional media asset identifierconfirmation message 508. In some cases, the media guidance applicationmay also prompt the user (e.g., also using optional media assetidentifier confirmation message 508) to select an alternate version ofthe media asset.

In other cases, the media guidance application may automatically selectan alternate version of the media asset and a corresponding source ofthat alternate version of the media asset. The media guidanceapplication may make this selection based on the rules for identifyingsources discussed previously, user preferences, or any other suitablecriteria. For example, the media guidance application may detect thatcommand 504 comprises a request for the “original version” of a mediaasset. The media guidance application may also determine based on userpreferences that the user prefers to watch the TV version of mediaassets. If the media guidance application cannot identify a source forthe original version of the media asset (as requested), the mediaguidance application may instead automatically identify a source for theTV version of the media asset. In another example, the media guidanceapplication may identify a source for the TV version of the media assetbecause it is the only version available from a free source.

In another example, the media guidance application may select analternate version of the media asset based on an intended use of themedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat command 504 (received from a user) comprises an instruction tostore a portion of the media asset “Goodfellas.” The media guidanceapplication may also detect that command 504 comprises a deviceidentifier corresponding to a device belonging to a different user. Forexample, if the media guidance application determines that command 504comprises the phrase “Record this scene and then share with Charlie'sphone,” the media guidance application may determine that the storedportion of the media asset (i.e., the scene from “Goodfellas”) is meantto be shared with another user (i.e., Charlie). The process of causing aportion of a media asset to be stored on a device other than the deviceat which the command is received is discussed in further detail belowwith regard to FIG. 7.

The media guidance application may then select an appropriate version ofthe media asset based on this intended use and/or the identity of theother user. For example, the media guidance application may determine,based on user preferences or default programming, that the TV version ofa media asset should be used (if available) whenever the portion of themedia asset is intended to be shared with another user. In this case,the media guidance application would select and identify a source of theTV version of “Goodfellas” because it has detected that command 504indicates that the scene is intended for Charlie. In another example,the media guidance application may determine, based on a user profilefor Charlie (e.g., located at storage circuitry 308 or accessed from aremote source via communications network 414), that Charlie prefers theoriginal version of media assets. In this case, based on thisdetermination, the media guidance application would select and identifya source of the original version of “Goodfellas.”

Alternatively, if the media guidance application does not detect thatcommand 504 comprises a device identifier corresponding to a devicebelonging to a different user, the media guidance application may selectan alternate version of the media asset according to user preferences,as discussed above. In this case, the media guidance application maydetermine that the user prefers unedited versions of media assets. Sincethe media guidance application has determined that the scene from“Goodfellas” is not intended for another user, it may then select andidentify a source of the unedited version of the movie (as describedabove).

The media guidance application may then cause the portion of the mediaasset to be stored (e.g., at storage circuitry 308). For example, themedia guidance application may schedule a recording (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304) of the portion of the media asset from a future broadcastof the media asset. The portion of the media asset may then be stored(e.g., at a remote server or at local storage such as storage circuitry308) to be later accessed at user equipment device 500 (e.g., viacommunications network 414). In another example, the media guidanceapplication may cause the portion of the media asset to be stored from areal-time Internet-based stream of the media asset. In another example,the media guidance application may retrieve or download the portion ofthe media asset from a remote server (e.g., media content source 416) atwhich the portion or entirety of the media asset is stored.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatcommand 504 comprises an indication of a duration of the portion of themedia asset. For example, the media guidance application may determinethat the command includes an instruction to store the last ten minutesof a media asset. The indication may be received via user inputinterface 310 (in FIG. 5, via microphone 502). In general, as discussedpreviously, the command may comprise an instruction to store at leastone of a specific scene, clip, chapter, interview, trailer,advertisement, and outtake from or related to the media asset. Thecommand may also comprise an instruction to store a plurality ofportions of the media, asset that are related to one another. Forexample, the portions may contain a certain actor, be associated with athreshold number of mentions or interactions on social media, contain acertain type of music, be associated with a certain mood, be scheduledfor recording by friends of the user, or any other appropriate criteriaor any combination thereof.

For example, if the user is watching “Star Wars Episode 1: The PhantomMenace,” the media guidance application may detect that the user hasissued a command (e.g., command 504) comprising an instruction to storeall scenes containing the character Darth Maul. As discussed previously,the command may be explicit (e.g., “Record all scenes with Darth Maul”)or implied (e.g., “Darth Maul is awesome in this!” or “That doublelightsaber is so cool!”). In this case, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the duration of each of the plurality of portions ofthe media asset would be the length of each scene (as determined, forexample, using metadata transmitted with the media asset, by analyzingthe media asset for scene transitions, or any other suitable method).The media guidance application may then request only specific scenesusing this information or may go through the entirety of the media assetto find and mark or extract these scenes for later playback.

In instances when the media guidance application detects that theindication of the duration is unclear or absent (such as the “Thatdouble lightsaber is so cool!” example given above), the media guidanceapplication may determine an appropriate portion or plurality ofportions to cause to be stored. For example, the media guidanceapplication may use natural language processing and video recognitiontechniques (here, to find a lightsaber that is different from theothers) or perform an Internet search (here, to find out that thecharacter Darth Maul uses a double lightsaber in “Star Wars Episode 1:The Phantom. Menace”). The media guidance application may then,according to default settings, user preferences, or a user commandhistory, store all scenes relating to the command, only the first scenerelating to the command, or take any other appropriate action.

In another example, if the user is watching “Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace,” the media guidance application may detect that the userhas issued a command (e.g., command 504) comprising an instruction tostore the trailer for the movie or for related movies. In this case, theduration of the portion of the media asset, as determined by the mediaguidance application, would be the length of the trailer.

The media guidance application may then determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304) a starting position and an ending position of the portionof the media asset based on the indication. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine (e.g., using control circuitry 304)that “the last ten minutes” contained in command 504 detected bymicrophone 502 corresponds to a starting position ten minutes before theend of the media asset and an ending position of the end of the mediaasset. The media guidance application may, once a source of the portionof the media asset is identified (e.g., source 610), query the sourcefor the length of the entirety of the media asset in order to find thestarting position. The media guidance application may then cause theportion of the media asset that elapses between the starting positionand the ending position to be stored. For example, in this case, onlythe last ten minutes of the media asset would be stored. The mediaguidance application may also, if no explicit indication of a durationis given, automatically select, by default or according to userpreferences, a portion of the media asset corresponding to what the useris currently viewing. For example, the media guidance application maycause a portion, of the media asset with a starting position two minutesbefore the command was detected and an ending position two minutes afterthe command was detected to be stored (e.g., at storage circuitry 308).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, usingcontrol circuitry 304, the correct, portion of the media asset (and,more specifically, the starting position of the portion of the mediaasset) by determining a part of the media asset being viewed by the userat the time the command was detected. The media guidance application maydo this in part by determining an initial source of the portion of themedia asset. For example, if, when the media guidance applicationdetects a command comprising an instruction to cause a portion of amedia asset to be stored, the user is watching a television program at asports bar, the initial source of the portion of the media asset wouldbe the source of the program at the sports bar (e.g., a specificbroadcast channel, video-on-demand service, or any other suitablesource).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine theinitial source of the portion of the media asset by recognizing, usingcontrol circuitry 304, the identity of the media asset based on thelocation of the user. For example, in this case, the media guidanceapplication may, using control circuitry 304, recognize the location ofthe user (i.e., the sports bar) and the content or content providerassociated with the media asset (here, sports-related content andcontent providers). Using this information, the media guidanceapplication ma y identify the initial source of the media assetassociated with the command and thereby be able to determine a source ofthe portion of the media asset.

In another example, the media guidance application may determine, usingcontrol circuitry 304, that the user is watching “Star Wars Episode 1:The Phantom Menace” while at home. The media guidance application maydetermine, in this case, what channels would be available to the user(based on information about channels the user is subscribed to orchannels available at the home location of the user). The media guidanceapplication may also determine, based on detected audio and/or videosignals, that the user is watching “Star Wars Episode 1: The PhantomMenace.” The media guidance application may then search schedule data(e.g., from media guidance data source 418) to find the initial sourceof the portion of the media asset (for example, a local broadcaststation).

The media guidance application may also determine, using controlcircuitry 304, the run time (i.e., the total length) of the media asset.For example, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., basedon an Internet search via communications network 414) that the run timeof the theatrical release of “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace”is 133 minutes. In another example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the run time of “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace”on the local broadcast station, once advertisements and edits areincluded, is 165 minutes (e.g., based on a query to media guidance datasource 418). Similarly, the media guidance application may alsodetermine the starting time of the media asset from the initial source.For example, the media guidance application may, based on informationreceived from media guidance data source 418, determine that the showingof “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” on the local broadcast:station began at 2:00 PM. The media guidance application may alsodetermine the time at which the command to store the portion of themedia asset was detected. For example, the media guidance applicationmay determine, using control circuitry 304, that the command wasdetected at 2:35 PM.

The media guidance application may then determine, based on at least oneof these previously described determinations (of the initial source ofthe media asset, original run time, modified run time, broadcast starttime, and time at which the command was received), which portion of themedia asset should be stored and the correct starting position of thatportion. For example, as discussed, the media guidance application maydetermine that (i) the command comprised an instruction to store thecurrent scene from “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace”; (ii) theinitial source of the movie is a local broadcast station; (iii) themovie started at 2:00 PM; (iv) the movie has had advertisements insertedinto it, so its scheduled run time is 165 minutes; (v) the command wasdetected at 2:35 PM (i.e., 35 minutes into the run time of the moviefrom the initial source); and (vi) the identified source from which theportion of the media asset will be retrieved and stored has thetheatrical release of the movie, which has a run time of 133 minutes.Based on any combination of this information, the media guidanceapplication may determine a starting position for the portion of themedia asset from the identified source that corresponds to the point atwhich the user command was detected in the initial source. For example,in this case, while the media guidance application detected the command35 minutes into the movie as presented by the initial source, the mediaguidance application may determine that, due to advertisements in thebroadcast (e.g., determined by querying media guidance data source 418),the corresponding starting position for the portion of the media assetis 28 minutes into the theatrical release.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect a signalassociated with the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect a video signal containing video from the mediaasset (e.g., via user interface 310 integrated with microphone 504 andaccessible to user equipment device 500). The media guidance applicationmay then determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304) a fingerprintassociated with the media asset based on the signal. A fingerprint maybe any data structure generated from the detected signal that isuniquely representative of the signal and can be compared to otherfingerprints. Accordingly, two identical signatures would correspond tothe same signal. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine a video fingerprint for the detected video signal. The mediaguidance application may determine this fingerprint by identifying andanalyzing unique components of the video signal containing video fromthe media asset. Examples of such components or characteristics include,but are not limited to, color distributions, luminance distributions,and changes in selected points between frames of the video signal (e.g.,a degree of difference or a direction of motion).

The media guidance application may then access a database comprising aplurality of known fingerprints. For example, the database (e.g.,located at media guidance data source 422 and accessed viacommunications network 414) may comprise a list of previously determinedfingerprints for a plurality of media assets. The media guidanceapplication may then cross-reference (e.g., via control circuitry 304)the fingerprint with the plurality of known fingerprints and determinethe identity of the source of the portion of the media asset based onthe cross-referencing. For example, the media guidance application maycompare the fingerprint to the list of previously determinedfingerprints to find the closest match. The media guidance applicationmay determine that two fingerprints match based on a determination of amathematical distance between the two fingerprints. For example, themedia guidance application may compute the Hamming distance between thetwo fingerprints. If the media guidance application determines that theHamming distance falls below a given numerical threshold (e.g., set bydefault or based on a user preference of how close the fingerprints mustbe to one another), the media guidance application may determine thatthe two fingerprints match. The media guidance application may then usethis information to identify the portion of the media asset originallyrequested by the user, identify a source of the portion of the mediaasset, and cause the portion to be stored.

The media guidance application may also determine, using controlcircuitry 304, the initial source of the portion of the media assetbased on signals detected by the media guidance application relating tothe media asset. For example, when the media guidance applicationdetects the user command (e.g., command 504), it may activatesignal-detecting components of the user device (e.g., a camera and/ormicrophone 502 of user equipment device 500). The media guidanceapplication may use these detected signals (e.g., by generating andcross-referencing fingerprints as described above) alone or inconjunction with the other methods described herein to identify theinitial source of the portion of the media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may detect an audio signal relating to the mediaasset and, using an acoustic fingerprint, determine that the media assetis “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace.” The media guidanceapplication may then determine the source or sources from which “StarWars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” would have been available to theuser at the time the command was detected.

The media guidance application may also determine, using controlcircuitry 304, the starting position of the portion of the media assetusing these detected signals. Once the media asset itself is identified(e.g., using a fingerprint generated from the detected signal), themedia guidance application may identify a source of the media asset (asdescribed herein), retrieve the media asset, and search it for data thatmatches the previously detected signal. The determination of whether ornot the data matches the detected signal may be performed as for thedetermination of whether or not two fingerprints match. The mediaguidance application may then base the starting position on thismatching point. For example, if a video signal has been detected, themedia guidance application may find, using control circuitry 304, amatching frame or frames within the retrieved media asset. In anotherexample, if an audio signal has been detected, the media guidanceapplication may find, using control circuitry 304, a matching audiosegment within the retrieved media asset.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may detect a deviceidentifier in the instruction. For example, the media guidanceapplication may receive a user instruction to store the portion of themedia asset on “my phone” (where “my phone” is the device identifier).The media guidance application may then determine (e.g., via controlcircuitry 304) which device the device identifier corresponds to basedon a user profile. For example, the media guidance application mayrecognize that the term “my phone” refers to a specific deviceassociated with the user based on a user profile (e.g., located atstorage circuitry 308). The media guidance application may then causethe portion of the media asset to be stored at the device. For example,the media guidance application may then cause the portion of the mediaasset to be stored on user equipment device 500 and not on anotherdevice associated with the user. The media guidance application mayinclude the name of the identified device in optional storageconfirmation message 506.

In some cases, the media guidance application may determine that thedevice identifier may refer to an explicit name. For example, the mediaguidance application may know the name of the user or a custom namegiven to a user device (such as user equipment device 500) through userpreferences or account, information. In such a case, the media guidanceapplication may detect a device identifier in the command (e.g., command504) that uses that name.

For example, the media guidance application may detect that a user namedSusan has referred to “Susan's laptop” rather than “my laptop” in acommand. The media guidance application may detect the device identifier“Susan's laptop” in the command given by the user (e.g., command 504).The media guidance application may then cross-reference the deviceidentifier against a database of device identifiers known to the mediaguidance application (e.g., located at storage circuitry 308). Based onthis cross-referencing, the media guidance application may determinethat the device identifier (here, “Susan's laptop”) is among those thatit knows and cause the portion of the media asset to be stored at thecorresponding device. If the media guidance application determines thatthe device identifier is not among those that it knows, it may determinea suggested device identifier (e.g., using the similarity metricdiscussed herein). The media guidance application may then prompt theuser to confirm that the suggested device identifier corresponds to thecorrect device. Finally, the media guidance application may cause theportion of the media asset to be stored at the device corresponding tothe suggested device identifier (if the user confirms that itcorresponds to the correct device) or prompt the user to input anotherdevice identifier (if the suggested device identifier does notcorrespond to the correct device).

In some cases, the device identifier may be ambiguous. For example, themedia guidance application may determine that the user has two phonesbut has detected the device identifier “my phone” in the user's command(e.g., command 504). The media guidance application may then determinethe most appropriate user device based on default settings, userpreferences, or a user command history. For example, if the mediaguidance application determines that command 504 comprises aninstruction to store a portion of “Star Wars Episode 1: The PhantomMenace” on “my phone” and the user has two phones, the media guidanceapplication may determine, using control circuitry 304, which phone theuser saves media to more frequently. Alternatively, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user prefers to save all media assetsto one phone unless otherwise specified.

The media guidance application may also detect that the deviceidentifier comprises a specific folder or other file location on thespecified user device. As for the devices themselves, the file locationmay be explicit (e.g., “Susan's Favorites folder”), implied (e.g., “MyFavorites folder”), ambiguous (e.g., “a folder”), or absent. The mediaguidance application may determine the most appropriate file locationfor the portion of the media asset based on the same determinations asfor the devices.

The media guidance application may also detect (e.g., using controlcircuitry 304) that the device identifier identifies a device to whichthe stored portion of the media asset should be transferred. Thetransfer may take place using a local connection or over communicationsnetwork 414, using any suitable protocol. For example, the mediaguidance application may determine that the portion of the media assetshould be transferred as the portion is being stored. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may determine that the portionshould be transferred after the storage operation is complete. Thisdetermination may be made based on default settings, user preferences,or the detected content of command 504. The media guidance applicationmay notify the user (e.g., using optional storage confirmation message506) about the status and completion of the transfer.

The media guidance application may also, once the source of the portionof the media asset has been identified and the device has beendetermined, generate for display (e.g., via control circuitry 304) astorage confirmation message, such as optional storage confirmationmessage 506. For example, the media guidance application may generatefor display, on display 312, a message confirming that the portion ofthe media asset has been found and a retrieved copy will soon be storedon the identified device. If the media guidance application determinesthat the user device at which the command was received does not have thecapability to generate for display a storage confirmation message (i.e.,it does not have a screen), the media guidance application maycommunicate the confirmation message in a different manner. For example,the media guidance application may communicate an audio version of themessage to the user (e.g., via speakers 314) or generate the message fordisplay by a different user device (e.g., a target device on which theportion of the media asset has been stored). The message may identifythe media asset, user, identified device, or any other relevantstorage-related information or any combination thereof.

The media guidance application may also use optional storageconfirmation message 506 to communicate information to the user orprompt the user to perform an action if the media guidance applicationdetermines that there is insufficient space (e.g., at storage circuitry308) to act on the user's command. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect that storage circuitry 308 of user equipmentdevice 500 does not have enough free space to store the portion of themedia asset that the user has requested. The media guidance applicationmay, in some cases, automatically delete another stored piece of content(e.g., the piece of content with the earliest date of storage or apreviously viewed piece of content) and, to inform the user of this,present optional storage confirmation message 506. In other cases, themedia guidance application may, using optional storage confirmationmessage 506, ask the user to select a piece of content to be deleted.For example, the media guidance application may generate for display, ondisplay 312, optional storage confirmation message 506 with the phrase“There is not enough space to store the opening scene of ‘Star WarsEpisode 1: The Phantom Menace’. Would you like to delete a savedprogram?” Upon receiving a selection of a piece of content to delete,the media guidance application may delete the selected piece of contentand store the requested portion of the media asset. Alternatively, themedia guidance application may detect that the user has chosen not todelete any piece of content, in which case the media guidanceapplication may cancel the storage operation.

In another example, the media guidance application may detect, that auser command (e.g., command 504) comprises an instruction to cause anentire media asset to be stored but that there is only enough space(e.g., at storage circuitry 308) to store a portion of the media asset.The media guidance application may use optional storage confirmationmessage 506 to ask the user to select a portion to be stored. Forexample, the media guidance application may generate for display, ondisplay 312, optional storage confirmation message 506 with the phrase“There is not enough space to store the opening scene of ‘Star WarsEpisode 1: The Phantom Menace’. Would you like to store a specificscene?” Alternatively, the media guidance application may automaticallyselect a portion or a plurality of portions of the media asset to bestored based on user preferences (e.g., all scenes containing a favoriteactor), defaults (e.g., the first five minutes of the media asset to actas a preview), or any other appropriate criteria or combination thereof.As before, the media guidance application may detect that the user hasnot chosen a portion of the media asset, in which case the mediaguidance application may cancel the storage operation.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thatthe portion of the media asset has been partially played at an initialsource corresponding to the instruction. For example, if the mediaguidance application determines that the user has requested that theopening scene from an ongoing television broadcast currently in progresson user equipment device 500 be stored, the media guidance applicationmay determine (e.g., via control circuitry 304) that the opening scenehas already been partially played. In response to this determination,the media guidance application may then identify a secondary source(e.g., source 710) for the portion of the media asset. The mediaguidance application may identify the secondary source in the samemanner or using the same rules as previously discussed for theidentification of a source. For example, the media guidance applicationmay search a list of Internet-based streaming content providers (e.g.,located at storage circuitry 308) and identify a future scheduled oron-demand stream of the media asset as the secondary source for theportion of the media asset.

FIG. 6 snows an illustrative embodiment of a system that may process andact upon a user command to cause a portion of a media asset to be storedon a user device at which the command was received in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. In FIG. 6, a media guidanceapplication implemented on first user device 604 detects that user 602has issued a command (e.g., command 504) to the media guidanceapplication. First user device 604 may be, for example, user equipmentdevice 500 and perform its functionality.

The media guidance application may, using control circuitry 304,determine that the command (e.g., command 504) comprises an instructionto store a portion of a media asset at first user device 604 (e.g., atstorage circuitry 308). For example, as discussed with regard to FIG. 5,the media guidance application may determine that user 602 has issued acommand to the media guidance application implemented on first userdevice 604 to store a portion of “Star Wars Episode 1: The PhantomMenace.”

The media guidance application may also determine whether user 602and/or first user device 604 has permission to access the portion of themedia asset. The media guidance application may make this determinationby requesting from first user device 604 a list of media assets thatuser 602 and/or first user device 604 has permission to access,requesting a password from user 602, cross-referencing user 602 and/orfirst user device 604 against a list of users and user devices known tohave permission to access the portion of the media asset, or by usingany other appropriate method. If the media guidance applicationdetermines that user 602 and/or first user device 604 does not havepermission to access the portion of the media asset, the media guidanceapplication may provide to user 602, using first user device 604 (e.g.,by generating for display optional storage confirmation message 506 ondisplay 312), an indication that user 602 and/or first user device 604does not have permission to access the portion of the media asset. Inthe example discussed here, the media guidance application may determinethat user 602 does not have permission to access the requested portionof “Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” from a future broadcast ona premium channel but that user 602 does have permission to access itfrom a given on-demand source.

If the media guidance application determines that user 602 and/or firstuser device 604 does have permission to access the portion of the mediaasset, the media guidance application may then suitably encode thecommand using control circuitry 304 and transmit it, over communicationsnetwork 414 by way of transmitter 606, to server 608. Transmitter 606may be a wireless transmitter, such as a cellular transmitter or a Wi-Fitransmitter (as shown in FIG. 6). Transmitter 606 may also denote awired connection, such as an Ethernet connection or an internal wiredconnection. Server 608 may be located locally or remote from first userdevice 604. Server 608 may include all functionality of first userdevice 604 or be implemented on first user device 604. Server 608 may beassociated with and/or operated by a vendor that provides the mediaguidance application. Server 608 may implement the functionality ofmedia guidance data source 418 and/or media content source 416. Server608 may comprise a database of known sources, known media assetidentifiers, or other data associated with media assets. Server 608 mayalso comprise control circuitry (such as control circuitry 304) forprocessing complex tasks not handled by first user device 604. In theexample discussed here, the media guidance application may encode thecommand comprising an instruction to store a portion of “Star WarsEpisode 1: The Phantom Menace” and transmit it using transmitter 606 toserver 608.

The media guidance application may then request that server 608 thentransmit a request for the portion of the media asset to source 610.This transmission may occur by using any known query language, such asSQL, to generate a query addressed to source 610. In some instances,source 610 is co-located with server 608. In some instances, source 610and server 608 are one integrated device. In some instances, source 610and server 608 are located remotely from one another. In the examplediscussed here, server 608 will transmit a request for the portion of“Star Wars Episode 1: The Phantom Menace” to source 610 (here, a givenon-demand source). The request from server 608 to source 610 may be forthe entirety of the media asset or, if applicable, for just the portionitself.

Server 608 may then receive the portion of the media asset from source610. The media guidance application may request that server 608 processthe portion of the media asset (e.g., by re-encoding, reformatting, orotherwise modifying it) such that it is suitable for first user device604. For example, if the portion of the media asset, as received fromsource 610, is in a format that first user device 604 cannot display,the media guidance application may request that server 608 reformat theportion of the media asset (e.g., into an appropriate format determinedby the media guidance application querying first user device 604). Inanother example, if server 608 received the entirety of the media assetfrom source 610, the media guidance application may request that server608 extract the portion of the media asset to transmit to first userdevice 604. The media guidance application may also perform any of thesefunctions (e.g., processing the portion of the media asset or extractingthe portion of the media asset) using control circuitry 304. The mediaguidance application may also find the starting position and endingposition of the portion within the media asset in order to generateappropriate playback markers for first user device 604. Server 608 maythen transmit the portion of the media asset to first user device 604,again over communications network 414 by way of transmitter 606. Themedia guidance application may the cause the portion of the media assetto be stored (e.g., at storage circuitry 308 of first user device 604).

For example, server 608 may receive the entirety of “Star Wars Episode1: The Phantom Menace” from source 610 but know (from command 504transmitted from first user device 604 via transmitter 606) that user602 only wants to store the opening scene of the movie. The mediaguidance application may, when it receives the media asset from server608, then extract the opening scene from the media asset received fromsource 610, encode it in a format playable by first user device 604, andcause the portion of the media asset to be stored at first user device604.

FIG. 7 snows an illustrative embodiment of a system that may process andact upon a user command to cause a portion of a media asset to be storedon a second user device in accordance with some embodiments of thedisclosure. As in FIG. 6, the media guidance application detects thatuser 702 has issued a command to first user device 704, and encodes itand transmits it, using transmitter 706, to server 708. In this case,the command comprises an instruction to store a portion of a media assetat second user device 712 rather than at first user device 704. Bothfirst user device 704 and second user device 712 perform thefunctionality of user equipment device 500.

Similar to FIG. 6, the media guidance application may, using controlcircuitry 304, determine that the command (e.g., command 504) comprisesan instruction to store a portion of a media asset at second user device712 (e.g., at storage circuitry 308). For example, as discussed withregard to FIG. 5, the media guidance application may detect that user702 has issued a command to the media guidance application implementedon first user device 704 to store a portion of “Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace” on second user device 712 (e.g., another user devicebelonging to or associated with user 702).

The media guidance application may also determine whether second userdevice 712 and/or a user associated with second user device 712 (e.g.,user 702 or another user, not shown) has permission to access theportion of the media asset. As before, the media guidance applicationmay make this determination by requesting from first user device 704 orsecond user device 712 a list of media assets that user 702 and/orsecond user device 712 has permission to access, requesting a passwordfrom user 702, cross-referencing user 702 and/or second user device 712against a list of users and user devices known to have permission toaccess the portion of the media asset, or by using any other appropriatemethod. If the media guidance application determines that user 702,another user associated with second user device 712 (not shown), and/orsecond user device 712 does not have permission to access the portion ofthe media asset, the media guidance application may provide to user 702,using first user device 704 (e.g., by generating for display optionalstorage confirmation message 506 on display 312), an indication thatuser 702, another user associated with second user device 712 (notshown), and/or second user device 712 does not have permission to accessthe portion, of the media asset. In the example discussed here, themedia guidance application may determine that second user device 712does not have permission to access the requested portion of “Star WarsEpisode 1: The Phantom Menace” from a future broadcast on a premiumchannel but that second user device 712 does have permission to accessit from a given on-demand source.

If the media guidance application determines that user 702, another userassociated with second user device 712 (not shown), and/or second userdevice 712 does have permission to access the portion of the mediaasset, the media guidance application may then suitably encode thecommand using control circuitry 304 and transmit it, over communicationsnetwork 414 by way of transmitter 706, to server 708. As before,transmitter 706 may be a wireless transmitter, such as a cellulartransmitter or a Wi-Fi transmitter (as shown in FIG. 7). Transmitter 706may also denote a wired connection, such as an Ethernet connection or aninternal wired connection. Server 708 may be located locally or remotefrom first user device 704 and/or second user device 712. Server 708 mayinclude all functionality of or be implemented on first user device 704and/or second user device 712. Server 708 may be associated with and/oroperated by a vendor that provides the media guidance application.Server 708 may be media guidance data source 418. Server 708 maycomprise a database of known sources, known media asset identifiers, orother data associated with media assets. Server 708 may also comprisecontrol circuitry (such as control circuitry 304) for processing complextasks not handled by first user device 704 and/or second user device712. In the example discussed here, the media guidance applicationimplemented on first user device 704 may encode the command comprisingan instruction to store a portion of “Star Wars Episode 1: The PhantomMenace” on second user device 712 and transmit it using transmitter 706to server 708 for further processing.

The media guidance application may then request that server 708 transmita request for the portion of the media asset, to source 710. Thistransmission may occur by using any known query language, such as SQL,to generate a query addressed to source 710. In some instances, source710 is co-located with server 708. In some instances, source 710 andserver 708 are one integrated device. In some instances, source 710 andserver 708 are located remotely from one another. In the examplediscussed here, server 708 will transmit a request, as instructed by themedia guidance application, for the portion of “Star Wars Episode 1: ThePhantom Menace” to source 710 (here, a given on-demand source). Therequest may be for the entirety of the media asset or, if applicable,for just the portion itself.

Server 708 may then receive the portion of the media asset from source710. The media guidance application may request that server 708 processthe portion of the media asset (e.g., by re-encoding, reformatting, orotherwise modifying it) such that it is suitable for second user device712, and then transmit it to second user device 712 (over communicationsnetwork 414 by way of second device transmitter 714). For example, ifthe portion of the media asset, as received from source 710, is in aformat that first user device 704 can display but second user device 712cannot display, the media guidance application may request that server708 reformat the portion of the media asset (e.g., into an appropriateformat determined by the media, guidance application querying seconduser device 712). In another example, if server 708 received theentirety of the media asset from source 710, the media, guidanceapplication may request that server 708 extract the portion of the mediaasset to transmit to second user device 712. As before, the mediaguidance application may perform these actions (processing the portionof the media asset and/or extracting it from the entirety of the mediaasset) at first user device 704 or second user device 712. The mediaapplication may also find the starting position and ending position ofthe portion within the media asset in order to transmit appropriateplayback markers to second user device 712. Second user device 712 maythen store the portion of the media asset (e.g., at storage circuitry308).

FIG. 8 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset based on a command received from a user in accordance withsome embodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 800or any step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-7. For example, process 800 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by control circuitryimplemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) to cause aportion of a media asset to be stored. In addition, one or more steps ofprocess 800 may be incorporated into or combined with one or more stepsof any other process or embodiment.

At 802, the media guidance application receives a voice command from auser. For example, a media guidance application implemented on userequipment device 500 may receive command 504 via microphone 502.

At 804, the media guidance application determines that the voice commandcomprises an instruction to store a portion of a media asset, whereinthe portion is less than the entire media asset. For example, the mediaguidance application may, using voice recognition techniques executed oncontrol circuitry 304, identify keywords associated with a storagecommand.

At 806, the media guidance application identifies a source of theportion of the media asset. In some embodiments, the media guidanceapplication may contact a remote server, such as server 608 or mediaguidance data source 418, to identify a source. In other embodiments,the media guidance application may access a locally stored (e.g., atstorage circuitry 308) list of suitable content sources.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application determining a sourceof the portion of the media asset may comprise the media guidanceapplication recognizing, using control circuitry 304, the identity ofthe media asset based on the location of the user, the time of therequest, and the channel, provider, or other source the user was viewingat the time the command was issued. For example, the user may bewatching a show broadcast via a service that the user does not normallyreceive (e.g., the user is at a friend's house and the friend subscribesto a different cable provider than the user). The media guidanceapplication may, using control circuitry 304, recognize the location ofthe user (i.e., the friend's house, which may be saved in a userprofile), the content provider associated with the media asset (i.e.,the friend's cable television provider, also saved in a user profile),and the time the command was issued. Using this information, the mediaguidance application may recognize the media asset associated with thecommand and thereby be able to determine a source of the portion of themedia asset.

At 808, the media guidance application causes, using control circuitry304, the portion of the media asset to be stored (e.g., at storagecircuitry 308). In some embodiments, the portion of the media asset isretrieved from a remote database (e.g., source 610 or source 710) andstored (e.g., at storage circuitry 308). In other embodiments, arecording of a future broadcast of the portion of the media asset may bescheduled.

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may, using controlcircuitry 304, cause the entirety of the media asset to be stored (e.g.,at storage circuitry 308). The media guidance application may then,using control circuitry 304, also store a pointer to the start of therequested portion of the media asset. When the media guidanceapplication detects that a user has requested playback of the portion ofthe media asset, the media guidance application may then use saidpointer to initiate playback of the stored media asset at the start ofthe requested portion. In this manner, the media guidance applicationmay facilitate interaction with the portion of the media asset whileallowing for later access to other parts of the media asset.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 8 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 8 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-7 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 8.

FIG. 9 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset when multiple sources are identified in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 900 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-7. For example, process 900 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by control circuitryimplemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) to cause aportion of a media asset to be stored when multiple sources areidentified. In addition, one or more steps of process 900 may beincorporated into or combined with one or more steps of any otherprocess or embodiment.

At 902, as at 802 of FIG. 8, the media guidance application receives avoice command (e.g., command 504 via microphone 502) from a user. At904, the media guidance application may determine, using controlcircuitry 304, whether the voice command includes an instruction tostore a portion of a media asset. If not, the media guidance applicationmay return to 902 to receive another voice command from the user or, ifapplicable, may act on the command in the appropriate manner (notshown).

If the media guidance application determines, using control circuitry304, that the voice command includes an instruction to store a portionof a media asset, the media guidance application may then proceed to906. At 906, the media guidance application may, as at 806, identify asource of the portion of the media asset using control circuitry 304. Insome embodiments, the media guidance application may access a list ofknown sources of portions of media assets, available locally or at aremote database (e.g., media guidance data source 418). In otherembodiments, the media guidance application may perform a broaderInternet search (e.g., using communications network 414) to find asuitable source.

At 908, the media guidance application may determine (e.g., usingcontrol circuitry 304) whether a source has been identified. If themedia guidance application has not identified a source, the mediaguidance application may proceed to 910 and inform the user that nosource has been found. For example, the media guidance application maygenerate for display (e.g., on display 312 of user equipment device 500)a notification message to this effect. In another example, the mediaguidance application may generate an audio message (e.g., to be playedvia speakers 314).

In some embodiments, if the media guidance application has notidentified a source, the media guidance application may present to theuser a set of selectable options of categories of clips that could berecorded. These categories may include but are not limited to “afantastic sports game,” “an amazing live show,” “a beautiful naturalsight,” and “an entertaining party.” These categories may be set bydefault, according to user preferences, or based on availableprogramming. For example, the media guidance application may not presentthe option to record a clip from “a fantastic sports game” if there areno sports games currently being broadcast.

If the media guidance application detects (e.g., using control circuitry304) that the user has selected one of the categories, it may identifyand store a clip corresponding to the selected category. In some cases,the media guidance application may access a database of prerecordedclips corresponding to categories (e.g., media, content source 416). Themedia guidance application may then select one of the prerecorded, clipsto be stored. In other cases, the media guidance application may searchfor media assets corresponding to the selected category (e.g., usingmedia guidance data source 418). The media guidance application may thenselect a media asset and/or a clip from a media asset to store. Thisselection may be done at random, according to user preferences,according to user selection, according to popularity of the clips withother users, or based on any other suitable criteria.

If the media guidance application has identified a source, the mediaguidance application may proceed to 912. At 912, the media guidanceapplication may determine, using control circuitry 304, if multiplesources have been identified. If the media guidance application has notidentified multiple sources (i.e., the media guidance application hasidentified a single source for the portion of the media asset), themedia guidance application may proceed to 914 and, using controlcircuitry 304, cause the portion of the media asset to be stored (e.g.,at storage circuitry 308, as at 808 of FIG. 8).

If the media guidance application has identified multiple sources of theportion of the media asset, the media guidance application may proceedto 916. At 916, the media guidance application may generate for display(e.g., on display 312) a menu asking the user to select a source to usefrom the plurality of identified sources. When the media guidanceapplication detects that the user has made a selection, the mediaguidance application may then use the selected source in order to, usingcontrol circuitry 304, cause the portion of the media asset to be stored(e.g., at storage circuitry 308) at 914.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 9 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 9 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-7 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 9.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset when a starting position and an ending position of theportion have been indicated by the user in accordance with someembodiments of the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1000 orany step thereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of thedevices shown in FIGS. 3-7. For example, process 1000 may be executed bycontrol circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by control circuitryimplemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) to cause aportion of a media asset to be stored when a starting position and anending position of the portion have been indicated by the user. Inaddition, one or more steps of process 1000 may be incorporated into orcombined with one or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

At 1002, as at 802 of FIG. 8, the media guidance application receives avoice command (e.g., command 504 via microphone 502) from a user. At1004, the media guidance application may determine, using controlcircuitry 304, whether the voice command includes an indication of aduration of a portion of a media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may determine that the user indicated that “the first fiveminutes” or “the next 10 minutes” or “this scene” from the media assetshould be stored. In some embodiments, the media guidance applicationmay determine, using control circuitry 304, that the user has requesteda scene, clip, chapter, interview, trailer, advertisement, or outtakefrom or related to the media asset. As stated previously, the indicationmay be relative (e.g., “the next five minutes”) or absolute (e.g., “fromthe 30-minute mark to the 45-minute mark”).

In some embodiments, the media guidance application may determine, usingcontrol circuitry 304, the starting position of the portion of the mediaasset based on the broadcast time of the media asset and the time thecommand was issued. For example, if the media guidance applicationdetects that the user issued the command to store the current portion ofthe media asset at 4:35 PM and the media guidance application determinesthat the media asset was scheduled to begin at 4:30 PM, the mediaguidance application would set the starting position to be five minutesinto the runtime of the media asset.

In other embodiments, the media guidance application may determine thestarting position of the portion of the media asset, using controlcircuitry 304, based on a video signal detected by the user device(e.g., user equipment device 500). As discussed previously, the mediaguidance application may use a detected video signal to identify asource of the portion of the media asset. Once the media guidanceapplication has identified a source, the media guidance application mayalso determine, using control circuitry 304, the starting position ofthe portion of the media asset by comparing the detected video signal tothe identified source. For example, the media guidance application maymatch a frame from the detected video signal to a frame from the mediaasset from the identified source. The media guidance application maythen use the point within the media asset corresponding to said frame asthe starting point of the portion of the media asset.

If the media guidance application determines that the voice command doesnot include an indication of a duration of a portion of the media asset,the media guidance application may proceed to 1006. At 1006, the mediaguidance application may cause a portion of the media asset to be stored(e.g., at storage circuitry 308) according to the default settings ofthe media guidance application. In some embodiments, the settings may beuser-specified. In some embodiments, the settings may be stored locally(e.g., at storage circuitry 308). In other embodiments, the mediaguidance application may retrieve the settings from a remote database(e.g., via communications network 414). For example, the media guidanceapplication may be set to cause the current scene from the specifiedmedia asset to be stored (e.g., at storage circuitry 308) in the absenceof an indicated duration of the portion of the media asset.

If the media guidance application detects that the voice command doesinclude an indication of a duration of a portion of the media asset, themedia guidance application may proceed to 1008. At 1008, the mediaguidance application determines, using control circuitry 304, a startingposition for the portion of the media asset. For example, if the mediaguidance application detects that the user has requested the next scenefrom the media asset, the media guidance application may determine,using control circuitry 304, that the starting position corresponds tothe scene transition between the current scene and the next scene. Anyother suitable point of demarcation may be used.

At 1010, the media guidance application determines, using controlcircuitry 304, an ending position for the portion of the media asset.For example, if the media guidance application detects that the user hasrequested the last ten minutes from the media asset, the media guidanceapplication may determine, using control circuitry 304, that the endingposition corresponds to the end of the media asset. As with the startingposition, any other suitable point of demarcation may be used.

At 1012, the media guidance application may cause the portion of themedia asset that elapses between the starting position and the endingposition to be stored (e.g., at storage circuitry 308). The storageoperation is carried out as at 808 of FIG. 8. For example, if the mediaguidance application detects that the user has requested the openingscene from a media asset, the media guidance application may retrievethat scene from a remote source (e.g., via communications network 414)or record it from a future broadcast of the media asset using thebeginning of the media asset as the starting position and the transitionto the second scene as the ending position.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 10 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 10 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-7 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 10.

FIG. 11 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for storing a portion of amedia asset at an identified device in accordance with some embodimentsof the disclosure. It should be noted that process 1100 or any stepthereof could be performed on, or provided by, any of the devices shownin FIGS. 3-7. For example, process 1100 may be executed by controlcircuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed by control circuitry implemented onuser equipment 402, 404, and/or 406 (FIG. 4) to cause a portion of amedia asset to be stored at an identified device. In addition, one ormore steps of process 1100 may be incorporated into or combined with oneor more steps of any other process or embodiment.

At 1102, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, receive an instruction from a user (e.g., in command 504 receivedvia microphone 502). At 1104, the media guidance application maydetermine, using control circuitry 304, whether the instruction includesa device identifier. For example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the device identifier refers to a user device associatedwith the user from whom the instruction was received (e.g., “my laptop”or “my DVR”). In another example, the media guidance application maydetermine that the device identifier refers to a user device associatedwith another user but to which the media guidance application may haveaccess (e.g., “my friend's phone” or “my parents' tablet”).

If the media guidance application does not detect a device identifier,the media guidance application may proceed to 1106. At 1106, the mediaguidance application causes, using control circuitry 304, the portion ofthe media asset to be stored at a default or preferred (as set by userpreferences) device (e.g., at storage circuitry 308). For example, themedia guidance application may be set to store the portion of the mediaasset at the user device at which the instruction was received. Inanother example, the media guidance application may, by default, storethe portion of the media asset at a certain location or device (e.g., ata remote server accessible by user devices via communications network414).

In some embodiments, at 1106, the media guidance application may, usingcontrol circuitry 304, determine an available device at which to storethe portion of the media asset. For example, the media guidanceapplication may automatically record the portion of the media asset tothe user's DVR (e.g., at storage circuitry 308) if at least one tuner isfree at the time the command is issued. In another example, the mediaguidance application may determine, using control circuitry 304, whichuser device has the most bandwidth currently available. In yet anotherexample, the media guidance application may determine, using controlcircuitry 304, which user device is currently performing the feweststorage-related operations (e.g., saving files, retrieving files, etc.).The media guidance application may make this determination using anysuch suitable technique or any combination thereof.

If the media guidance application detects a device identifier, the mediaguidance application may proceed to 1110. At 1110, the media guidanceapplication may determine, using control circuitry 304, whether it haspermission to cause the portion of the media asset to be stored on thespecified device. For example, the media guidance application may accessa list (e.g., located at storage circuitry 308 or at a remote databaseaccessible via communications network 414) of devices to which it canstore data. In another example, the media guidance application maytransmit, using control circuitry 304, a request for permission to theuser device specified by the device identifier.

If the media guidance application determines that it does not havepermission to cause the portion of the media asset to be stored on thespecified device, the media guidance application may return to 1106 andstore the portion of the media asset at the default device. If the mediaguidance application determines that it does have permission, it mayproceed to 1112. At 1112, the media guidance application may cause theportion of the media asset to be stored on the device corresponding tothe device identifier (e.g., at storage circuitry 308). The storageoperation may follow that of step 808 of FIG. 8.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 11 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 11 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-7 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 11.

FIG. 12 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for selecting a suggestedmedia asset identifier in response to the user providing a media assetidentifier that does not match any media asset identifier known to adatabase in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. Itshould be noted that process 1200 or any step thereof could be performedon, or provided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-7. For example,process 1200 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) asinstructed by control circuitry implemented on user equipment 402, 404,and/or 406 (FIG. 4) to select a suggested media asset identifier inresponse to the user providing a media asset identifier that does notmatch any media asset identifier known to a database. In addition, oneor more steps of process 1200 may be incorporated into or combined withone or more steps of any other process or embodiment.

At 1202, the media guidance application may receive, using controlcircuitry 304, a media asset identifier. For example, the media guidanceapplication may detect the media asset identifier in a voice commandreceived by the media guidance program using microphone 502 of userequipment device 500.

At 1204, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, access a database of known media asset identifiers. For example,the media guidance application may access a local database of knownmedia asset identifiers (e.g., located at storage circuitry 308). Inanother example, the media guidance application may access, usingcommunications network 414, a remote database of known media assetidentifiers (e.g., located at server 608).

At 1206, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, choose a known media asset identifier from the database of knownmedia asset identifiers. For example, the media guidance application mayselect the first media asset identifier if the known media assetidentifiers are stored in an ordered list.

At 1208, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, compare the received media asset identifier to the known mediaasset identifier chosen at 1206. For example, if the media guidanceapplication determines that the known media asset identifier is a stringof characters, the media guidance application may, using controlcircuitry 304, perform a character-wise comparison of the two mediaasset identifiers. In this case, the media guidance application maydetermine that the received media asset identifier “The Princess Movie”matches characters from the known media asset identifiers “The PrincessBride” and “The Princess Diaries.”

In another example, the media guidance application may, using controlcircuitry 304, search for words that appear in both the received andknown media asset identifier, regardless of word order. In this case,the media guidance application may determine that the received mediaasset identifier “Star Trek: Khan's Wrath” has several words in commonwith the known media asset identifier “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.”

In yet another example, the media guidance application may search forkeywords in both the received and known media asset identifier thatsignify that they belong to the same category (e.g., a genre, type ofasset, etc.). In this case, the media guidance application may determinethat the received media asset identifier “A Long Time Ago Out West” andthe known media asset identifier “Once Upon a Time in the West” bothrefer to content belonging to the genre “Western” even though they havevery few words in common. Any other suitable method of comparison or anycombination thereof may be used.

At 1210, the media guidance application may determine, using controlcircuitry 304 and based on the comparison at 1208, whether the receivedmedia asset identifier matches the known media asset identifier chosenat 1206. For example, if the media guidance application performed theaforementioned character-wise comparison, the media guidance applicationmay determine that the two identifiers match if all of their charactersmatch. If the two identifiers match, the media guidance application mayproceed to 1212 and select, using control circuitry 304, the matchingknown media asset identifier. The media guidance application may thenuse this media asset identifier to identify a source of a portion of themedia asset identifier and cause that portion to be stored (as discussedpreviously, for example, at 806 and step 808 of FIG. 8).

If the media guidance application determines that the two identifiers donot match, the media guidance application may proceed to 1214. At 1214,the media guidance application may, using control circuitry 304, computea similarity metric corresponding to a degree of similarity between thereceived media asset identifier and the known media asset identifierchosen at 1206. The similarity metric may be any appropriate measurebased on the method of comparison being used.

For example, if the media guidance application is using a character-wisecomparison, the similarity metric may be the number or percentage ofcharacters that match between the two media asset identifiers. Using aprevious example, the media guidance application may determine, usingcontrol circuitry 304, that the received media asset identifier “ThePrincess Movie” matches the first 11 non-blank, characters of the knownmedia asset identifiers “The Princess Bride” and “The Princess Diaries.”The media guidance application may then set the similarity metric forboth comparisons to be 11. Alternatively, the media guidance applicationmay set the similarity metric for “The Princess Bride” to be 0.6875 (11out of 16 non-blank characters) and the similarity metric for “ThePrincess Diaries” to be 0.6111 (11 out of 18 non-blank characters).

Similarly, if the media guidance application searches for common wordsbetween the two media asset identifiers, the number or percentage ofmatching words may be used. Returning again to a previous example, themedia guidance application may determine, using control circuitry 304,that the received media asset identifier “Star Trek: Khan's Wrath” hasthree words that are the same as those in the known media assetidentifier “Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan” (or three-sevenths of thewords).

In another example, if the media guidance application uses keywords toassign the media asset identifiers to categories (as discussedpreviously), the similarity metric may correspond to the likelihood thatboth media asset identifiers belong to the same category. From before,the media guidance application may determine, using control circuitry304, that the received media asset identifier “A Long Time Ago Out West”and the known media asset identifier “Once Upon a Time in the West” areboth highly likely to refer to content belonging to the genre “Western.”

In some embodiments, the media guidance application, using controlcircuitry 304, may base the comparison and/or similarity metric in parton information retrieved from a user profile (e.g., located at storagecircuitry 308 or accessed via communications network 414). For example,if the media guidance application detects, using control circuitry 304,that the user has requested “Star Wars 1” and the media guidanceapplication determines that the user's profile indicates that the userenjoys science-fiction films from the 1970s, the media guidanceapplication may suggest “Star Wars Episode 4: A New Hope” (i.e., thefirst Star Wars movie to be released) rather than “Star Wars Episode 1:The Phantom Menace” as a potential match. Without the user profileinformation, the media guidance application may suggest “Star WarsEpisode 1: The Phantom Menace” due to the similarity of the titles. Userprofile information used in this manner by the media guidanceapplication may include viewing history, purchase history, user-selectedpreferences, any other suitable information, or any combination thereof.

At 1216, the media guidance application may determine, using controlcircuitry 304, if there are additional known media asset identifiers inthe database of known media asset identifiers. For example, if the knownmedia asset identifiers are stored in an ordered list, the mediaguidance application may determine, using control circuitry 304, if ithas reached the end of the ordered list. If there are additional knownmedia asset identifiers, the media guidance application may return to206 to choose another known media asset identifier for comparison.

If the media guidance application determines, using control circuitry304, that there are no additional known media asset identifiers, themedia guidance application may proceed to 1218. At 1218, the mediaguidance application may, using control circuitry 304, determine if anyof the computed similarity metrics are above a given similaritythreshold. The similarity threshold used by the media guidanceapplication may be a minimum degree of similarity necessary for apotential match to be declared. For example, if the media guidanceapplication bases the similarity metric on a character-wise orword-based comparison, the media guidance application may set thesimilarity threshold such that a certain percentage of the characters orwords must match. In another example, if the media guidance applicationhas assigned the media asset identifiers to categories based onkeywords, the media guidance application may set the threshold such thatthe likelihood that the two media asset identifiers belong to the samecategory must be above a given level. Any such threshold appropriate tothe similarity metric may be used.

If the media guidance application determines, using control circuitry304, that none of the computed similarity metrics exceed the threshold,the media guidance application may proceed to 1220. At 1220, the mediaguidance application may, using control circuitry 304, inform the userthat no match has been found. As at 910 of FIG. 9, the media guidanceapplication may generate for display (e.g., on display 312) anotification message to this effect or may generate an audio message(e.g., to be played via speakers 314). Any other suitable means ofnotification, such as a tactile sensation (e.g., a vibration), or anycombination thereof may be used as well.

If the media guidance application determines, using control circuitry304, that at least one computed similarity metric exceeds the threshold,the media guidance application may proceed to 1222. At 1222, the mediaguidance application may, using control circuitry 304, select asuggested media asset identifier to present to the user. For example,the media asset identifier may select the known media asset identifierwith the highest similarity metric to the received media assetidentifier. In another example, the media guidance application mayselect the known media asset identifier whose similarity metric exceedsthe threshold and aligns with the preferences of the user (e.g., basedon saved user preferences or a user profile stored at storage circuitry308 or accessible via communications network 414).

At 1224, the media guidance application may provide the user with anoption to confirm that the selected media asset identifier correspondsto the media asset they requested. For example, the media guidanceapplication may, on display 312 of user equipment device 500, generatefor display media asset identifier confirmation message 508. In anotherexample, the media guidance application may play an audio message (e.g.,using speakers 314 of user equipment device 500) asking the user forconfirmation (to be received using microphone 502 or user inputinterface 310).

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 12 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 12 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-7 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 12.

FIG. 13 is a flowchart of illustrative steps for combining sections of aportion of a media asset from multiple sources when a user requests thestorage of a portion of a media asset that has already been partiallyplayed in accordance with some embodiments of the disclosure. It shouldbe noted that process 1300 or any step thereof could be performed on, orprovided by, any of the devices shown in FIGS. 3-7. For example, process1300 may be executed by control circuitry 304 (FIG. 3) as instructed bycontrol circuitry implemented on user equipment 402, 404, and/or 406(FIG. 4) to combine sections of a portion of a media asset from multiplesources when a user requests the storage of a portion of a media assetthat has already been partially played. In addition, one or more stepsof process 1300 may be incorporated into or combined with one or moresteps of any other process or embodiment.

At 1302, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry 304and microphone 502, receive a voice command (e.g., command 504) from auser as at 802 of FIG. 8. At 1304, the media guidance application may,using control circuitry 304, determine that the voice command comprisesan instruction to store a portion of a media asset, wherein the portionis less than the entire media asset. Again, this follows 804 of FIG. 8.

At 1306, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, determine that the portion of the media asset has already beenpartially played at an initial source corresponding to the instruction.For example, if the user is watching a media asset on user equipmentdevice 500, the media guidance application may detect that the user hasinstructed the media guidance application to store the current scene.The media guidance application may determine, using control circuitry304, that at the time of the instruction, said scene would have alreadybeen partially played on user equipment device 500 (i.e., the initialsource corresponding to the instruction). This partial playback may bedetected by the media guidance application.

At 1308, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, identify a secondary source for the portion of the media asset thatis not the same as the initial source. As at 806 of FIG. 8, in someembodiments, the media guidance application may access a list of knownsources of portions of media assets, available locally or at a remotedatabase. In other embodiments, the media guidance application mayperform a broader Internet search (e.g., using communications network414) to find a suitable source.

At 1310, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, cause a remainder of the portion of the media asset to be storedfrom the initial source. For example, the media guidance application maycause the remainder of the portion of the media asset that elapsesbetween the time the instruction was received and the end of the portionto be stored (e.g., to storage circuitry 308).

At 1312, the media guidance application, using control circuitry 304,may cause a partially-played section of the portion of the media assetto be stored from the secondary source. For example, the media guidanceapplication may cause the remainder of the portion of the media assetthat elapses between the start of the portion of the media asset and thetime the instruction was received to be stored (e.g., to storagecircuitry 308). The media guidance application may store more than whatwas partially played at the initial source (e.g., to overlap with theremainder stored from the initial source to allow for discrepanciesbetween the two sub-portions).

At 1314, the media guidance application may, using control circuitry304, combine the partially-played section and the remainder of theportion of the media asset to form the entirety of the requested portionof the media asset. For example, the media guidance application maycombine the two sections to form a single file (e.g., located at storagecircuitry 308). In another example, the media guidance application maygenerate a link from one section to the other such that the two storedfiles may be played back seamlessly.

It is contemplated that the steps or descriptions of FIG. 13 may be usedwith any other embodiment of this disclosure. In addition, the steps anddescriptions described in relation to FIG. 13 may be done in alternativeorders or in parallel to further the purposes of this disclosure. Forexample, each of these steps may be performed in any order or inparallel or substantially simultaneously to reduce lag or increase thespeed of the system or method. Furthermore, it should be noted that anyof the devices or equipment discussed in relation to FIGS. 3-7 could beused to perform one or more of the steps in FIG. 13.

It will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that methodsinvolved in the present invention may be embodied in a computer programproduct that includes a computer-usable and/or readable medium. Forexample, such a computer-usable medium may consist of a read-only memorydevice, such as a CD-ROM disk or conventional ROM devices, or a randomaccess memory, such as a hard drive device or a computer diskette,having a computer-readable program code stored thereon. It should alsobe understood that methods, techniques, and processes involved in thepresent invention may be executed using processing circuitry. Forinstance, identification of a source of the portion of the media assetmay be performed by processing circuitry, e.g., by processing circuitry306 of FIG. 3. The processing circuitry, for instance, may be a generalpurpose processor, a customized integrated circuit (e.g., an ASIC), or afield-programmable gate array (FPGA) within user equipment 300, mediacontent source 416, or media guidance data source 418. For example, themedia asset correspondences as described herein may be stored in, andretrieved from, storage 308 of FIG. 3, or media guidance data source 418of FIG. 4. Furthermore, processing circuitry, or a computer program, mayupdate settings associated with a user, such as user profilepreferences, updating the information stored within storage 308 of FIG.3 or media guidance data source 418 of FIG. 4.

The processes discussed above are intended to be illustrative and notlimiting. One skilled in the art would appreciate that the steps of theprocesses discussed herein may be omitted, modified, combined, and/orrearranged, and any additional steps may be performed without departingfrom the scope of the invention. More generally, the above disclosure ismeant to be exemplary and not limiting. Only the claims that follow aremeant to set bounds as to what the present invention includes.Furthermore, it should be noted that the features and limitationsdescribed in any one embodiment may be applied to any other embodimentherein, and flowcharts or examples relating to one embodiment may becombined with any other embodiment in a suitable manner, done indifferent orders, or done in parallel. In addition, the systems andmethods described herein may be performed in real time. It should alsobe noted, the systems and/or methods described above may be applied to,or used in accordance with, other systems and/or methods.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method for storing a portion of a media assetin response to receiving a voice command, where the voice commandincludes a duration of the portion but does not expressly indicate astarting position of the portion of the media asset, the methodcomprising: receiving a voice command from a user using a microphone;determining that the voice command comprises an instruction to store aportion of a media asset that is currently playing; and in response todetermining that the voice command received using the microphonecomprises the instruction to store the portion of the media asset:processing an audio signal detected by the microphone to identify anaudio output of the media asset; determining a fingerprint based on theaudio output; accessing a database comprising a plurality of knownfingerprints; identifying a given fingerprint of the plurality of knownfingerprints that matches the fingerprint; identifying, using the givenfingerprint, a source from which the portion of the media asset isavailable; determining a position of the media asset that corresponds toa time at which the audio output was detected; determining a startingposition of the portion of the media asset based on the instruction andthe position of the media asset at the time; extracting a duration ofthe portion of the media asset from the instruction; accessing theportion of the media asset from the source starting from the startingposition of the portion of the media asset and using the extractedduration as a length of the portion; and causing the portion of themedia asset to be stored.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein identifyingthe given fingerprint of the plurality of known fingerprints thatmatches the fingerprint comprises: determining a mathematical distancebetween the fingerprint and the given fingerprint of the plurality ofknown fingerprints; and comparing the mathematical distance to athreshold.
 3. The method of claim 2, wherein the mathematical distancebetween the fingerprint and the given fingerprint of the plurality ofknown fingerprints is a Hamming distance.
 4. The method of claim 1,further comprising determining an ending position of the portion of themedia asset by: querying the source from which the portion of the mediaasset is available to determine the total length of the media asset; anddetermining the ending position of the portion of the media asset to bethe ending point of the media asset.
 5. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising determining an ending position of the portion of the mediaasset by: determining that the starting position of the portion of themedia asset corresponds to a scene of the media asset; and determiningthe ending position of the portion of the media asset to be the endingpoint of the scene of the media asset.
 6. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: detecting a device identifier in the voice command;determining which device the identifier corresponds to based on a userprofile; and causing the portion of the media asset to be stored at thedevice.
 7. The method of claim 6 further comprising generating fordisplay a storage confirmation message when the source from which theportion of the media asset is available has been identified and thedevice has been determined.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein causingthe portion of the media asset to be stored comprises: determiningwhether there is sufficient space on a device for the portion of themedia asset to be stored; based on determining that there isinsufficient space on the device for the portion of the media asset tobe stored, providing to the user an option to select a media asset todelete from the device; receiving a selection from the user of a secondmedia asset to delete from the device; causing the second media asset tobe deleted from the device; and causing the portion of the media assetto be stored on the device.
 9. A system for storing a portion of a mediaasset in response to receiving a voice command, where the voice commandincludes a duration of the portion but does not expressly indicate astarting position of the portion of the media asset, the systemcomprising: communications circuitry; and control circuitry configuredto: receive a voice command from a user using a microphone; and inresponse to determining that the voice command comprises an instructionto store a portion of a media asset that is currently playing: processan audio signal detected by the microphone to identify an audio outputof the media asset upon determining that the voice command receivedusing the microphone comprises the instruction to store the portion ofthe media asset; determine a fingerprint based on the audio output;access a database comprising a plurality of known fingerprints; identifya given fingerprint of the plurality of known fingerprints; identify,using the given fingerprint, a source from which the portion of themedia asset is available; determine a position of the media asset thatcorresponds to a time at which the audio output was detected; determinea starting position of the portion of the media asset based on theinstruction and the position of the media asset at the time; extract aduration of the portion of the media asset from the instruction; accessthe portion of the media asset from the source starting from thestarting position of the portion of the media asset and using theextracted duration as a length of the portion; and cause the portion ofthe media asset to be stored.
 10. The system of claim 9, wherein thecontrol circuitry is configured to identify the given fingerprint of theplurality of known fingerprints that matches the fingerprint by:determining a mathematical distance between the fingerprint and thegiven fingerprint of the plurality of known fingerprints; and comparingthe mathematical distance to a threshold.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the mathematical distance between the fingerprint and the givenfingerprint of the plurality of known fingerprints is a Hammingdistance.
 12. The system of claim 9, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to determine an ending position of the portion of themedia asset by: querying the source from which the portion of the mediaasset is available to determine the total length of the media asset; anddetermining the ending position of the portion of the media asset to bethe ending point of the media asset.
 13. The system of claim 9, whereinthe control circuitry is further configured to determine an endingposition of the portion of the media asset by: determining that thestarting position of the portion of the media asset corresponds to ascene of the media asset; and determining the ending position of theportion of the media asset to be the ending point of the scene of themedia asset.
 14. The system of claim 9, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to: detect a device identifier in the voice command;determine which device the identifier corresponds to based on a userprofile; and cause the portion of the media asset to be stored at thedevice.
 15. The system of claim 14, wherein the control circuitry isfurther configured to generate for display a storage confirmationmessage when the source from which the portion of the media asset isavailable has been identified and the device has been determined. 16.The system of claim 9, wherein the control circuitry is furtherconfigured to cause the portion of the media asset to be stored by:determining whether there is sufficient space on a device for theportion of the media asset to be stored; based on determining that thereis insufficient space on the device for the portion of the media assetto be stored, providing to the user an option to select a media asset todelete from the device; receiving a selection from the user of a secondmedia asset to delete from the device; causing the second media asset tobe deleted from the device; and causing the portion of the media assetto be stored on the device.
 17. A method for storing a portion of amedia asset in response to receiving a voice command, where the voicecommand includes a duration of the portion but does not expresslyindicate a starting position of the portion of the media asset, themethod comprising: receiving a voice command; determining that the voicecommand comprises an instruction to store a portion of a media assetthat is currently playing; and in response to determining that the voicecommand comprises the instruction to store the portion of the mediaasset: generating a fingerprint of an audio signal of the media asset;identifying a fingerprint of a plurality of fingerprints matching thegenerated fingerprint, wherein each of the plurality of fingerprints isassociated with a known media asset; identifying, using the identifiedfingerprint, a source from which the portion of the media asset isavailable; determining a position of the media asset that corresponds toa time at which the audio output was detected; determining a startingposition of the portion of the media asset based on the instruction thesource and the position of the media asset at the time; extracting aduration of the portion of the media asset from the instruction; andcausing, using the starting position and the source, the portion of themedia asset to be stored, wherein the extracted duration is used as alength of the portion of the media asset.
 18. A system for storing aportion of a media asset in response to receiving a voice command, wherethe voice command includes a duration of the portion but does notexpressly indicate a starting position of the portion of the mediaasset, the method comprising: a voice recognition interface; and controlcircuitry configured to: receiving a voice command using the voicerecognition interface; determine that the voice command comprises aninstruction to store a portion of a media asset that is currentlyplaying; and in response to determining that the voice command comprisesthe instruction to store the portion of the media asset: generate afingerprint of an audio signal of the media asset; identify afingerprint of a plurality of fingerprints matching the generatedfingerprint, wherein each of the plurality of fingerprints is associatedwith a known media asset; identify, using the identified fingerprint, asource from which the portion of the media asset is available; determinea position of the media asset that corresponds to a time at which theaudio output was detected; determine a starting position of the portionof the media asset based on the instruction the source and the positionof the media asset at the time; extract a duration of the portion of themedia asset from the instruction; and cause, using the starting positionand the source, the portion of the media asset to be stored, wherein theextracted duration is used as a length of the portion of the mediaasset.